For many, Review Victory Programs represents the last possibility for hope and the first chance for sustained success in their battles with substance use or illness. On the streets, at our Boston Living Center, and across programs, we work to prevent chronic conditions and overdoses. We provide HIV, Hepatitis C, and STI testing and counseling; a healthy meals program; syringe and naloxone distribution; and an array of education, navigation, and support services.

Residential Recovery Programs

1. Remembering her own experiences —  of sleeping in cars or under a bridge, of wanting to end her own life — and the moments when people helped, or failed to help, Rivera said she continues to find herself wanting to do more to aid people in similar need.
2. “We were always left alone, and the violence that was in the house was not normal,” she said of living with her mother.
3. By the time she was 16, she’d been introduced to drugs by one of her mother’s friends, she said.
4. Learn more about our Residential Recovery and Short-Term Treatment programs.
5. For many, Review Victory Programs represents the last possibility for hope and the first chance for sustained success in their battles with addiction or illness.
6. We provide HIV, Hepatitis C, and STI testing and counseling; a healthy meals program; syringe and naloxone distribution; and an array of education, navigation, and support services.

We focus on what a person is doing “well,” with a nurturing effect that fosters continued effort from the first steps toward progress and growth.

Being able to provide that respite and getting to see individuals who have come in from the street smile (she calls them “members”) is the best, she told Boston.com. We are excited to bring you the latest issue of Review Victory Programs’ print newsletter, The Doorway! The Fall edition is packed with inspiring stories and messages of resilience, generosity, and hope from our clients, staff, and supporters who are transforming lives and strengthening our communities. We follow a low-barrier housing-first clinically driven approach to guide clients towards health and safety. Rivera said whenever she learns of another fatal overdose, she finds herself wondering about how there could have been a different outcome.

“They saw so much in me that I didn’t see,” she said of the job offer. “Every time I had an appointment, they had somebody to come with me because it’s how I felt safe,” she said. By the time she was 10 or 11, Rivera and her siblings were placed in foster care because of their mother’s alcohol use. By the time that she was about 8, her mother moved the family to Springfield, Massachusetts. But she said it’s also taken her a long time to feel comfortable sharing what she experienced as a child and teenager, which resulted in her own years-long struggle with substance use, incarceration, and instability.

She’s always been cautious of sharing too much, in part because she’s aware that the people she is helping have their own traumas that they may not be ready to talk about. “Sometimes I feel so happy that my heart — I feel like I’m having like a big, Review Review Victory Programs good pain in my heart,” she said. We provide high-quality, evidence-based services based on individual needs, offering flexible, strengths-based solutions to people’s biggest challenges.

She provides counseling to the most entrenched individuals at Mass. and Cass. She wants you to know her story.

When people come in, she and her colleagues offer hot meals and find out what their needs may be. They make sure people have clean needles and talk to those who are engaged with sex work, asking how they are keeping themselves safe. When Rivera was moved to Casa Esperanza’s new housing on Eustis Street, she again felt flooded with feelings of fear and nervousness about the change, she recalled.

Recovery

Giving the individuals that she counsels at The Victory Connector, a low-threshold navigation center in the neighborhood run by the nonprofit Review Victory Programs, a feeling of care, a sense of calm and peace, is what she aims for each day. Our services range from recovery support groups like AA or Refuge Recovery to wellness and life-skill activities like resume-building workshops or yoga classes; anything that encompasses healthy and safe choices for the mind, body, and soul. The Jamaica Plain Recovery Center (JPRC) is a peer-led community center in partnership with Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Our goal is to create a safe, welcoming space for individuals from all backgrounds who are navigating addiction recovery.

Serve the person

“It’s happening a lot,” Rivera said, emphasizing that there are more dangerous substances being put in the drugs being consumed on the street. The hardest moments are when Rivera and her colleagues learn from members coming into the Connector that someone has passed away from an overdose, she said. Each day, she and her colleagues at the Connector also do about two hours of street outreach, rotating who stays in the office and who goes out. She began having dreams about her past, and she was prescribed medications to help with the nightmares.