LOCAL

Drug Court grads return as program mentors

Several men return to program to mentor others seeking recovery

Sheri Trusty
Correspondent
Ryan Clifton, Judge Bruce Winters, Damion Tall and Dakota Siefke are working together to help men find success in recovery. Winters implemented the Graduate Mentor Program on Aug. 10, and Clifton, Tall and Siefke are among the programs first mentors.

PORT CLINTON — Since implementing the Drug Addiction Treatment Alliance (DATA) program in 2013, Ottawa County Common Pleas Court Judge Bruce Winters has watched the program impact many lives. The DATA Program, commonly known as Drug Court, helps substance dependent offenders step into sobriety and a new, better life.

Now a few Drug Court graduates are stepping back into the program as mentors to help others find that same success.

On Aug. 10, Winters and his treatment team implemented the Graduate Mentor Program through the Ottawa County Specialized Dockets. The program pairs Drug Court and Mental Health Court participants with people who have graduated from the programs to serve as mentors. The graduate mentor helps the mentee maneuver through the program, offers support and becomes an advocate in their recovery.

On Sept. 13, Winters, DATA Program Coordinator Leah Brookins and graduate mentors Ryan Clifton, Damion Tall and Dakota Siefke discussed the program around a table at Bistro 163. Clifton, Tall and Siefke are all Drug Court graduates who are successfully living in recovery and ready to help other men stay committed to their new lives.

Graduates aid those trying to navigate the program and recovery

Brookins said the goals of the program are to pair program participants with program graduates, connect participants with additional sober supports, help participants transition off of Drug Court or Mental Health Court and keep the court’s treatment team connected to program graduates.

The Graduate Mentor Program is required for mentees, but the mentors are volunteers who willingly signed up to help. In addition to Clifton, Tall and Siefke, Jeff Schill is also a graduate mentor.

“Anytime we ask these guys to do anything for us, they’re there for us,” Winters said. “They consistently show up. I don’t think they realize how rare that is.”

Ryan Clifton, left, talks with Court of Common Pleas Judge Bruce Winters. Clifton once faced drug charges in Winters’ courtroom, but now the two men are collaborating to help people find the success in recovery that Clifton enjoys today.

For the mentors, the program provides another way for them to give back to the community and to the court team that helped them move beyond their past and into a meaningful, productive present.

“I wanted to give back to them for what they gave to me, which was freedom,” Siefke said.

Coupled with that freedom was the gift of a second chance.   

Mentor says he wants to give back because people did not give up on him

“I want to give back because people didn’t give up on me,” Tall said. “The judge gave me the chance to see something different, so when I see people who used to be like me, I try to give something back to them.”

Brookins said the court set loose perimeters on the program, asking the mentors to meet with their mentees at least twice a month engaging in community events, enjoying hobbies together or doing “prosocial activities such as playing sports or volunteering.” The men have done a variety of activities with their mentees, such as cooking dinner together, attending support meetings or simply hanging out to talk.

Those connections are crucial to recovery success.

“Sometimes people get done with Drug Court and don’t stay connected to the sober community, but the sober community is crucial to staying sober,” Winters said.

Drug Court graduates leave the program equipped with encouragement, support and a myriad of resources that will help them stay sober, but the one thing the treatment team can’t provide is personal perspective. That is where the Graduate Mentor Program picks up the slack. The mentors teach the mentees how to live out sobriety in the day-to-day routine.

“There are things we can’t teach that these men can,” Winters said.

A mentor program has the potential to be exceptionally successful in Ottawa County, where the sober community is strongly linked.

“People say small towns are cliquey, but we’re all so connected. When a person dies of overdose, we all feel it. We worked with them or went to school with them,” Clifton said. “We all know each other, and that scenario has been good for Ottawa County.”

Many of the Drug Court participants began using drugs while they were young, and their drug use kept their lives static, sometimes preventing their personalities from blossoming and life skills from developing.

“I lost about 15 years of adult life,” Tall said. “So when I got into the program, I started looking at grown men doing grown men things so I could learn.”

Now, Clifton, Tall, Siefke and Schill are the grown men teaching grown men things. They are showing their mentees that recovery is possible and a happy life is within their reach.

Contact correspondent Sheri Trusty atsheritrusty4@gmail.com.