Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan Second Wave's On the Ground Battle Creek series.
 
CALHOUN COUNTY, MI — The appearance of the words “recovering addict” on a job resume would be a non-starter for most employers unless you operate a nonprofit like the SHARE Center that counts opioid addicts among its clients.
 
When Matthew Jones, a recovering heroin addict, was hired there in March as a Peer Support Recovery Coach, there was no guarantee that the funds for his job would continue, says Robert Elchert, Executive Director of the SHARE Center. With an estimated 70 percent of the organization’s clients struggling with Opioid addiction, Jones’ work is critically important.
 
This was not lost on Calhoun County’s 25-member Opioid Settlement Funds Steering Committee which awarded $60,000 of these funds to the SHARE Center to cover Jones’ salary and provide transportation assistance to individuals in recovery.
 
“He really is the best resource we have in Calhoun County towards getting people into recovery. He has such a strong relationship with the people trying to beat addiction because he’s been one of them, a former addict himself,” Elchert says. “He’s put over 100,000 miles on a van we bought last year and driven people as far as Sacred Heart Rehabilitation Center in Berrien Springs for treatment.”
 
The SHARE Center was one of eight nonprofits in the County that received a portion of the first of 18 annual disbursements of opioid settlement funds. As of August, the County has received $3.6 million from numerous national opioid settlement funds. Over the next 18 years, the total expected settlement funds are projected to be nearly $12 million, with an annual average of $700,000, according to a press release from the Calhoun County Government.
 
Other organizations awarded funding to support their initiatives in opioid prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery:

Alano Club – $65,000
To enhance service delivery, expand outreach efforts, and ensure the sustainability and effectiveness of their programs.
 
Bronson Battle Creek – $20,000
To develop and provide education and awareness training on responsible opioid prescribing and Medication for Addiction Treatment (MAT) to healthcare providers, including physicians, nurses, and advanced practice providers.
 
Gracious Homes – $58,177
To provide additional case management services aimed at implementing evidence-based strategies to prevent and discourage the misuse of opioids and alcohol.
 
The Haven of Rest – $150,000
To support capacity building and assist with Medicaid eligibility for individuals in need.
 
Milk Like Mine – $28,565
To offer education and support for birthing mothers, focusing on opioid prevention.
 
Substance Abuse Council (SAC) – $68,750
To expand the Teen Intervene program and increase Narcan distribution across the county.
 
Substance Abuse Prevention –$91,000
To expand services and strengthen the coalition working on opioid prevention initiatives.
 
To be eligible for the 2024 awards, organizations were required to have their primary office or headquarters within Calhoun County and also serve the residents of the county. Eligible applicants included nonprofits and local governments. The selection process was competitive, utilizing a Request for Proposals (RFP) process with a scoring matrix to ensure fairness and transparency.
 
“This effort represents an incredible step forward in our collective mission to combat the opioid crisis,” says Steve Frisbie, Calhoun County Board of Commissioners Vice Chair and Steering Committee Member. “The dedication and hard work of everyone involved will have a lasting impact on our community, providing essential support and hope to those who need it most.”

Recovery comes full circle.
 
During his journey from addiction to recovery, Jones was a client and staff member at both The Haven, a homeless shelter, and the SHARE Center, a daytime drop-in shelter.
 
He lost those jobs when he “dropped dirty.”
 
When he was 32, he stopped using. That was in 2017, but achieving recovering addict status was not easy, and every day since is a challenge.
 
“The monkey is not on my back but the circus is still in town,” Jones says. “I can’t tell you that I’m never going to get high again. I have to break down my life into 5-minute increments.”
 
The “firsts” that he experiences are something most people take for granted — throwing a football around, choosing to stay away from people and places where he was actively using, and being in the moment with his 4-year-old son, among them.
 
John GrapMatt Jones is Peer Support and Recovery Coach for the SHARE Center, a drop-in center near downtown Battle Creek.Something as innocuous as his belt is a trigger. He says he used to tighten it around his arm when he was shooting up and re-trains himself each day to see it for what it’s supposed to be used for.
 
Pain medications were his gateway drug. He stole pain medications prescribed to treat his grandmother’s breast cancer and a ring that had been on top of her dresser. These are the memories he continues to live with every day. 
 
“I was the monster of my own story. I’m the one who caused the pain and confusion. I’ve had to learn how to forgive myself.”
 
His addiction journey began while playing sports as a youth.
 
“I was a big guy and drugs were always readily available to me. I enjoyed getting high and liked the way it made me feel. I liked the process of preparing to use and the lifestyle it gave me. When you have drugs and money it seems to attract women. It’s just easier to buy friends and you’re never alone when you have drugs and money.”
 
Ultimately, the gateway drugs led to a heroin and crack addiction.
 
Jones says he only smoked crack one time which lasted for three years. By this time he was married with a child. His wife was also an addict and at one point turned to prostitution as a way to support her own drug habit.
 
The choice to continue using or get clean presented itself when Jones was charged with drug possession.  In the midst of this, the couple’s son was removed from their care by the state of Michigan and eventually adopted out.
 
“I had come in front of the same judge for several other charges. She looked at me and said, ‘I finally got you and I’m going to allow you to save yourself. The judge threw me a lifeline and I took It. It was either going to go really good or really bad, but I so desperately wanted to change.”
 
He agreed to participate in Calhoun County’s Drug Treatment Court.
 
“With my wife being a lady of the night as a way of supporting her drug habit, I knew if I ever wanted her to get better, it had to start with me,” he says.
 
Jones eventually got his wife into the Women’s Life Recovery Program at the Haven where he was working at the time.
 
“She actually came up to my job high and I had to tell on her. We were able to work through losing a child, homelessness, and addiction and we weren’t able to work through getting clean together,” he says.
 
John GrapThe SHARE Center, near downtown Battle Creek, offers services that help people overcome crises by meeting basic needs, removing barriers, and stabilizing income and housing.They divorced. He would marry again and have a child, now 4, who he is raising as a single parent.
 
“My second kid’s mother passed away, She worked at the Augusta Recovery Center and was doing great. Then she overdosed and died in 2021,” Jones says.
 
Experience matters
 
Since it opened in 1992,  Elchert says the SHARE Center has seen a lot of changes when it comes to opioid use. He calls the explosion of prescribed opioids “huge” and says when people were cut off from those they began feeding their addiction with street drugs. These drugs have become more lethal. As an example, he cites the addition of fentanyl and crack to heroin.
 
Two weeks ago, Jones and Elchert were alerted to a drug overdose victim near the SHARE Center by a young woman through the Good Samaritan Law.
 
“We had to hit him 16 times with Narcan,” Jones says. 
 
“When it comes to opioids it’s so complicated and so difficult,” Elchert says. “This person overdosed and we were able to save him and he’s now checking into rehab. But there are so many who get into rehab and relapse.  It’s tough because there are so many variables. One of the things I’ve come to learn in this job is that expecting someone to overcome opioid addiction when they’re living under a bridge or out in the open is not a reasonable expectation for anyone.”
 
Jones is currently working with about 80 clients in different stages of recovery. He takes them to meetings and appointments, the Victory Methadone Clinic, or Summit Pointe. When he first meets a client, he determines what their drug of choice is and figures out the treatment options that will most likely work for them. He takes pride in getting people the resources they need and being there for them.
 
“I work at ground zero not one person who walks in that SHARE Center is on a winning streak. Anybody asking for help should be struggling. I do tell them they need to do what’s best for them in their recovery. What’s going to be good for someone else might hinder them.”
 
His phone is on 24 hours a day and Narcan kits include his name and contact information.
 
Matthew Jones, Peer Support Recovery Coach“When my clients stop calling so much I know they’re too busy with life and work and succeeding so they don’t need as much of my time and attention,” Jones says. “With a lot of my clients, they see from me that hard work does pay off and that if they do the things they’re supposed to do then they get to where they want to be. See people succeeding doing the right things and others falling.”
 
The toughest part, he says, is watching people fail or die. He himself doesn’t know if he’ll be able to say ‘no” to a conscious decision to use again.
 
“As addicts, we suffer from a disease of choice,” Jones says.
 
His choice now is to live a clean, sober life for his son’s sake and his own.
 
“No one can take my peace and sobriety unless I part with it. It no longer matters how long I live, but how I live. I’d rather have 10 more years of a good quality life than 20 miserable ones.”