By Erin Smith
A substance abuse treatment program is poised to come to Bladen County in the near future and will offer long-term treatment for women.
Pastor Holly Loyer, with Albemarle Teen Challenge in Elizabeth City, announced the program is planning to locate a facility on Lula Long Road in Ammon. The proposal is to house 12 women between the ages of 18 and 40 and there will be a staff member on the premises at all times.
The program is a long-term, faith-based residential program for women. A typical stay with Teen Challenge is 12 to 15 months, said Pastor Loyer.
There are also opportunities available for members of the community to sponsor a student during her stay with Teen Challenge. Sponsorships are $50 per student monthly or you can simply make a one-time contribution. Teen Challenge is a non-profit 501(c)3 company so any contributions are tax deductible.
Pastor Loyer said, for those who may not have heard of Teen Challenge, it is a program with a long, established history and proven track record. Teen Challenge was founded in 1960 by Pastor David Wilkerson and has grown to a national and global scale. Wilkerson founded the Teen Challenge program after leaving his rural Pennsylvania church and town and traveling to New York City after reading a Life magazine article about a murder trial there. The trial involved several teenaged men, who were gang members, and were alleged to have murdered a man who suffered from Polio.
Pastor Wilkerson began to work with and minister to teenage gang members and those who were down-trodden in the streets of New York City. He started the first Teen Challenge in Brooklyn and also wrote the book, “The Cross and the Switchblade,” which details his ministry.
Pastor Loyer said the program has continued to grow since 1960. Currently, there are 250 Teen Challenge facilities throughout the United States. The program has an 86 percent success rate and she attributes that to the fact it is faith-based.
“We come to your area with a national affiliation and a global affiliation,” said Loyer.
The program is based on a holistic approach to drug and alcohol recovery with courses which feature Bible-based, practical lessons.
Pastor Loyer said she established the Teen Challenge facility in Elizabeth City in 2010. She said her involvement with Teen Challenge came about through her work as a nursing home administrator. Pastor Loyer said that while working as a nursing home administrator, she often encountered nurses who were diverting medications. She explained she worked to get the nurses into rehab facilities for their issues.
Pastor Loyer said as she worked to assist those nurses, the Lord began to lay it on her heart to establish some type of recovery program. She said as she worked on her divinity degree with Regent University, she performed an internship with a Teen Challenge facility which eventually led to her establishment of Albemarle Teen Challenge.
Pastor Loyer said, now, she wants to start a facility in Bladen County to help women here who are struggling with addiction and other life issues.
Celebrate Recovery’s Amy Munn has successfully completed Albemarle Teen Challenge. She said as she was fighting her own battle with addiction, she was arrested and placed into the Bladen County Jail. They transferred her to Brunswick County for holding purposes and while there, her mother found out about Albemarle Teen Challenge.
Munn said when she entered Teen Challenge, she was already on probation for another court case. She said by the time she completed Teen Challenge, her cases had been disposed of and she recently completed all of the requirements for her probation.
She credits her time at Teen Challenge for helping her to conquer her addiction.
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