Liberation Programs Celebrates National Recovery Month

Liberation Programs Inc. observed National Recovery Month last Thursday with an interfaith celebration held at Stamford’s First Presbyterian “Fish” Church. The organization provides treatment to individuals that are struggling to overcome a variety of substance abuse problems. The event was intended to mark the positive steps that their clients have taken in the past year.

“My hope for this evening is that we will leave with a sense of renewal,” said Liberation Program’s President and CEO Alan Mathis. “So that we can go back out and help others who need us.”

Present at the event were members of the local clergy, who offered spiritual encouragement, and two “graduates” of the program that spoke candidly about their experiences. Liberations Programs counselor, Carl Lewis, performed a poem that he had written which described the feelings of someone who is struggling with addiction. The evening’s music was provided by the Voices of Recovery choir.

Director of Residential Services, Maggie Young, sounded the underlying theme for the gathering. “You are never alone,” Young said emphatically. And then, she prompted the crowd with an open-ended question, “We are all..?” “…Pieces in the puzzle,” came the reply from many in the church sanctuary.

Nowhere was the celebration’s theme more evident than in the performance of the Voices of Recovery choir. It was made up of 5 women and 8 men who are clients in the program and was led by veteran Broadway actress Bertilla Baker. Baker became involved with Liberation Programs when they organized their first interfaith celebration last September.

“They asked if I would come and sing a solo,” Baker recalled. “I said, ‘How about if I put together a choir?’ It went over very well. And they said, ‘We don’t know what we’re going to do without you!” So I said, ‘Maybe you don’t have to!”

Baker continued to work with the singers for the next 12 months in part because she found them a source of constant inspiration. “I’ve seen the veil lifting from their eyes,” she explained. “They come in with behavioral problems, maturity problems, focus problems, all kinds of problems. And you can see that change. You can watch them get up on their feet again and go out into the world.”

It was Thursday evening’s audience, however, that was brought to its feet several times to applaud the choir’s spirited delivery of modern gospel songs. The singers returned the compliment with broad grins that showed that they were both pleased at the reaction to their performance and, perhaps, a little relieved that it was over.

But, Maggie Young described the joyous response to the choir’s performance best. “With all of their struggles,” she marveled. “They are able to delight in song!”