When Kindness Becomes the First Step to Recovery

It was another incredible Sunday! We headed to Boston with the Boston Recovery Foundation volunteer outreach team. We served food, clothes, kindness, and smiles to over 100 people. We’ve built relationships with some of them over time, but there were also many new faces this week. We met a few people who had recently relapsed and shared their stories with us. Daniel had been sober for two years and relapsed two weeks ago. We provided him with food and clothes, but we also talked about his struggles with addiction and recovery. We encouraged him to get back into treatment and offered to be his support system during his journey. He said he’d consider it, but he wasn’t ready yet.

We also met Faisal. He’s a middle-aged man from Somalia who became addicted to opiates in the US. At first, he asked for new socks and underwear, but when he realized that our volunteers were actually interested in speaking with him, he told us about his life and his current struggles with addiction. We offered to help him get into treatment and shared our information with him. As we walked the streets and met other people, we always wonder what else we can do to help alleviate their suffering. But we also realize that our mission is to spread hope, the seeds of hope, wherever we go, and to be there for the person who’s ready to take the first step.

On Monday at 7:30 a.m., we received a call from Daniel. He still had the card we gave him with our contact information, and he remembered the pledge we made to be there and ready to help him when he was ready for treatment. He told us he wanted to get into detox right away. We made the necessary calls, and within 45 minutes, he was entering Andrew House detox in Boston. Safe and on his journey to healing.

At 8:15 a.m., Faisal called us. He had the same card from us and remembered his conversation with one of our volunteers who encouraged him to seek treatment. Faisal was touched by the volunteer’s kindness and felt safe going to treatment because he now has people that would walk with him through his recovery journey. At 9:15 a.m., Faisal was admitted to Casa Esperanza detox.

A few weeks ago, we met Richard on the streets in Boston, on the same day we were able to get him into a detox facility. Today we were excited to see him again. He came to visit us during our outreach to let us know that he was doing well. He is now living in a halfway house in Boston and looks healthy and happy.

Daniel, Faisal and Richard are receiving the treatment they need today because a volunteer saw their humanity and chose to share not only clothing and food, but kindness, hope, and love. There was a respectful conversation and human connection.

Tomorrow, we will be going to Casa Esperanza and Andrew detox with boxes of clothing, books, and toiletries for Daniel and Faisal. But most importantly, we’ll bring love and hope. We can all be agents of healing, kindness, and hope. Sometimes a simple act of kindness can save someone’s life.