The Boy Scouts
Provide a Warm
Welcome
To Those in Recovery from Addiction
Addiction = Shame
People in recovery can feel like they are outsiders with visible marks of their past on display to everyone. They can fear getting involved with non-using communities and experience a lingering worry that they don’t quite fit in.
Shame from addiction isolates people, making them vulnerable to temptation and relapses.
Dashel had an idea.
For his Eagle Scout project, Dashel decided something needed to be done to help people in recovery receive a warm welcome and experience tangible evidence of their worth and acceptance.
He gathered all the supplies he would need.
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Draw string bags
FOR TOILETRIES
These bags can hold towels, soap, shampoo, and everything else needed for a shower, making it easy to get ready for showers in a home with 6 to 10 other people in recovery.
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Reading Materials
BIBLES, PENS, AND RELIGIOUS TRACTS
Resilient Recovery knows that people need more than hygiene products. They need spirtual grounding and hope.
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Backpacks
SOMETHING TO HOLD IT ALL TOGETHER
These backpacks are a high quality way to make sure even the thing to hold the things is a worthwhile and useful gift.
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Toiletries
PLENTY OF HYGIENE PRODUCTS
Towels, toothpaste, razors, shampoo. . . this is the heart of the project, which is to give people things they really need and have let us know they want.
He called his troop together
Dashel got his troop together one Saturday, and they went to work assembling the welcome bags.
They gave a very personal welcome
The scouts’ finishing touch was to make personal welcome cards for newcomers. These Scouts really got into the spirit and spent over 20 minutes writing multiple heartfelt cards. You can see some of them below.
You can read some of the cards they wrote
Introduce your brand
On the day the backpacks were distributed, Resilient Recovery featured speeches of encouragement.
And one by one, we handed out backpacks with personal cards from the young people who made the gifts possible.
Attendees read the thoughtful cards out loud and applauded the sentiments they contained.
What a great example of how communities and organizations can support one another.
Young people were given the opportunity to lead and make a difference in their community.
Those in recovery received unique and tangible evidence that they were more than accepted by the community—they were welcomed warmly and appreciated.
