MACHIAS, Maine — When Paul Trovarello and Aaron Dudley were offered a house on Lincoln Street for only $11,400, it was an offer they said they couldn’t refuse.
On Jan. 6, they made a down payment of $3,400 on the property and used the house to launch Arise Addiction Recovery, a faith-based residential addiction treatment center that can house 14 men at a time, 12 in recovery and two overseers. They accepted their first client Jan. 12 and now have 10 of 12 recovery beds filled.
Arise is one of at least a handful of faith-based recovery centers around Maine. Trovarello said he personally got sober two and a half years ago through the Seven Oaks Training Center in Winterport. Other faith-based treatment centers include City Reach in Bangor, Teen Challenge in Winthrop and Resting Arms Ministries in Island Falls.
“God’s doing something unbelievable here,” said Justin T., an Arise client who arrived Jan. 16. “I’ve never felt like this in my life — never,” he said.
The problem for Arise is that the remaining $8,000 it owes on the house is due in a lump sum Aug. 15, and the nonprofit organization doesn’t have it.
“If we don’t come up with [the $8,000], none of this is going to continue,” said Trovarello, who serves as the treatment center director.
“We have $4,000 in a savings account designated just for the Aug. 15 date,” said Dudley, pastor of Machias Christian Fellowship in Machias, which is affiliated with the treatment center.
The money in the account came from a $2,500 donation from Machias Savings Bank, other small donations from area churches and fundraising by selling shirts and holding raffles, Trovarello and Dudley said.
The two men even went to the Machias selectmen’s meeting March 23 and asked for help.
“If I had $8,000, I’d give it to them,” said Selectman Warren Gay.
The selectmen agreed to ask voters at the annual town meeting on June 15 if they would be willing to donate $1,000. Even if the voters approve the donation, and Arise uses all of the money in the savings account, it is still $3,000 short.
And if the organization uses the $4,000 in savings to buy the property, it won’t have anything left for emergencies, Trovarello and Dudley said. The need for one major repair to the 100-year-old house before Aug. 15 could easily wipe out the savings account.
On paper, Trovarello said, Arise should have the money. The nonprofit charges each client $3,500 in tuition to cover treatment, room and board for six months. But only one of the current roster of clients has paid the full amount.
The money coming in has been enough to keep the program growing but not enough to set aside anything toward the $8,000, he said.
“All we want to do is help people,” Trovarello said. “You aren’t going to kick them out because of money. That’s just not going to happen.”
Trovarello and Dudley said they can’t accept commercial medical insurance or any kind of state or federal aid without substantially changing their program.
“If I take money from the state, they give you the curriculum that you’re supposed to teach,” Trovarello said.
According to him, faith-based programs have success rates of 70-86 percent compared with less than 15 percent for traditional programs. Much of the reason is that faith-based programs take longer to go through. Most secular programs are 28 or 30 days, which is not long enough, they said.
The Arise program involves Bible studies and church attendance. Clients are expected to help out around the house by doing small repairs or maintenance and cooking. Sometimes the men will take on a chore, such as painting a garage in the community, for a donation to the program, Trovarello and Dudley said.
When a client reaches the fourth month, he begins to look for a regular job. Once he lands a job, he can go to work but is expected to return to the Arise program during his off hours, they said. At this point, the client will open a bank account and begin paying off court costs, fines and other debt.
“The results, the facts, the statistics prove that faith-based recovery works,” said Trovarello. “We offer more than [just] sobriety.”
Donations for Arise can be sent to Arise Addiction Recovery, P.O. Box 353, Machias, 04654, or call Trovarello at 255-5011.