Recovering addicts volunteer, 'now lives amazing'

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Chelsea Donnor said she struggled with drug and alcohol addiction for the better part of 20 years. It wasn't until last year she was ready to get clean.

"I just hit a spiritual low that I was willing and desperate to do whatever was suggested to me through the mentor program," she told KOIN 6 News. "They gave me a safe place to stay. The requirements were go to meetings, community service, and intensive outpatient. And there were folks that believed in me when I really didn't believe in myself."

She completed the 80 hours of volunteer work, like packing boxes of food for families in need, landscaping at Portland parks, and assisting at the Ronald McDonald House.

Now she is the lead liaison for Central City Concern's Community Volunteer Corps (also known as CVC) and oversees people in early addiction and homeless recovery complete that 80-hour volunteer program.

She's on the other side of addiction, like her coworker Jon Wall.

"The reality is," Wall said, "I'm a recovering addict and I was at a point in my life where I needed some help."

He found that help at Hooper Detox. That got him into CVC.

"If you look outside in Portland and you see that we're struggling, right? People need help. They need a way to give back. They need a place to start," he said.

Volunteering is a simple starting point that they say helps pave the way to reintegrate into the workforce and build a sense of community.

"Just the basics of following a schedule one day a week, showing up on time, getting to know my peers," Donnor said. "And because the one thing that we all have in common is we're struggling with addiction."

Giving back was a way they could get their lives back.

"I have been homeless, I've been incarcerated," Wall said. "I'm now a program manager for this program, and I'm not the only one. We have nurses, small business owners, construction workers, all sorts of people that started their journey with a basic volunteer program, and now their lives are amazing."

If only supportive employment programs were easy to come by.

"It is one of the first things that funders cut when they're considering budgets. And it's really tragic because it's actually cost-effective and has an incredible return on investment," Juliana Lukasik of Central City Concern told KOIN 6 News.

Central City Concern's data shows if someone is introduced to employment services at any point in their recovery journey, they're seven times more likely to remain employed, housed and clean.

"When somebody has the ability to have an income that is so critical to their ability to move from subsidized housing into the community again, and that's what we need," Lukasik said. "We need folks moving through the continuum of care."

Leaders at Central City Concern call on the state, county and city to fund sustainable employment services programs.

The challenge is that Oregon is very reliant on federal resources to fund employment and training efforts. At the federal level, these resources have been declining for decades.

According to Worksystems, nationally the US spends one-third on employment services compared to its spending in the 1970s.

"In other words, we need consistent funding that goes beyond just one year," Lukasik said. "We don't need to fund the shiny new object. We need to fund the things we know work."

A 2023 study focused on the Portland metro area found that Central City Concern's program had the highest success rate. Every dollar CCC spent on employment services nearly doubled its return on investment to society.

Yet the same study recorded that the top problems for employment services providers are insufficient funding and workforce shortages. These are linked. Low wages contribute to the lack of staff.

As one interviewee in the study said, “If you are job seeking and see that you can make 25-50% more as a case manager than as a supportive employment (SE) provider, you probably won’t apply for the SE position.”

“They need to be able to offer significantly higher wages to be able to compete," another interviewee noted. "Workforce has difficulty finding housing, so this contributes to workforce leaving the area.”

"I've been really, really baffled," Lukasik said. "I cannot understand why people don't see the need to invest in employment services because it is such a huge part of somebody's road to recovery."

The latest Community Volunteer Corps group will graduate in July. From there, they will be paired with an employment specialist who helps refine their resume, look for jobs, find professional clothing and any other necessary training to get them employed.

Central City Concern said the public and private sectors in the Portland metro area need to work together to reconnect people to the labor market.

Experts who work in employment services stress that getting people job training and into work should be prioritized at the same rate as shelter and housing.

"As recovering addicts, we can give back to the community. We can be a good workforce," Wall said.

The City's 'tentative' plan

The City of Portland said it is working with partners to create employment opportunities for people who are trying to get into stable living situations.

Right now, the team is figuring out how they can create work opportunities for people who are living in Safe Rest Villages and Temporary Alternative Shelters—as well as helping them find work after they leave the shelter system. 

The city’s current goal is to acquire adequate funding for the next fiscal year, starting July 1. The plan is to use the money to start a pilot program to establish an internship where clients will have the chance to work for 4-5 shifts (4-hour shifts) and receive 1-2 classroom sessions.

From there, the city wants to create packages of work opportunities within its shelter sites. Plus, incorporate time with a workforce case manager to understand their clients’ goals, so they can help make a work plan for individuals.

The second piece of the pilot is to potentially start a grant program to fund local groups doing this work, like Central City Concern and Ground Score Association. 

Overall, the city said its goal is to collect data through this process, develop a recipe that works—and use it to leverage a case for getting more money for employment services from the county and state.

“There are so many individuals and organizations that recognize the importance of job opportunities, however, right now the demand for employment services outweighs the opportunities available,” said Hendrik Broekelschen, policy & outreach advisor for the Mayor’s Office. “The goal for all of us is to figure out how we can collaborate and make a case for additional funding for supportive employment.”

The County's contribution

The Joint Office of Homeless Services funds several employment programs that provide low-barrier employment opportunities for people experiencing homelessness. These programs are contracted through several providers, including Cultivate Initiatives, Central City Concern and Trash for Peace.

The programs offer entry-level opportunities to earn income, develop various work skills and establish a recent work history.

In fiscal year 2024, JOHS-funded programs provided an estimated 900 people with employment services. For the next fiscal year (FY 2025), the Joint Office is budgeting $5.7 million for employment services.

Plus, the Department of County Human Services employment service program has provided $4.2 million in payments to 365 clients, across five different categories, for the current fiscal year as of May 3 (the period between July 1, 2023 and May 3, 2024).