Helping men heal: Orangeburg ministry takes holistic approach to addiction

Those are among the challenges some Orangeburg County men face. A group of church, business and community leaders are working together to tackle the problems.

Rise Ministry, a donor-funded, faith-based drug and alcohol rehabilitation ministry, wants men to know their dignity and worth in Jesus Christ.

“Our program is a holistic approach,” RISE co-founder JP Sibley said. He’s also pastor of Orangeburg’s New City Fellowship Church.

“Our residents will not only be challenged to turn their lives over to God, but they will also be given opportunities to grow socially and in their employment. We follow a proven recovery program with classroom instruction, one-to-one counseling and small group meetings,” he said.

The acronym RISE speaks directly of the ministry’s mission:

• Restore: Residents are restored in all their core relationships, with themselves, with God, with their family and with the community.

• Ignite: Residents encounter the power of God to ignite change through faith in Christ, hope in his promises, and love experienced in community.

• Support: Residents are supported and encouraged through a structured process of physical, emotional and spiritual growth.

• Empower: Residents are empowered to flourish in society with good health, safe housing, a steady income and a heart to serve.

“Because of generations of families living in poverty, absent fathers and family dysfunction, many of Orangeburg’s residents experience their community as a trap from which they cannot escape,” the ministry states on its website. “There are many men in Orangeburg County who are discouraged and defeated, which has led to addiction, broken families, fatherless children, homelessness and a community-wide poverty of spirit.”

Sibley and Jordan Smith are considered the founders of the ministry.

“RISE has grown out of the recovery work that we have been doing with men struggling with addiction and other life-besetting issues,” Sibley said. “We have helped dozens of men get into similar programs in other areas of the state.”

“We believe that a focus on helping restore men and build them up will have a positive impact on the women and children that have been left in the wake of the man’s self-destruction,” Sibley continued. “As broken men are healed, they will be better able to support and help their families.”

Substance abuse counseling will be under the guidance of the Tri-County Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse using licensed counselors.

“We are happy RISE will be in our community to help meet the needs of men who need a stable living environment to regain their footing and become productive and fully functioning,” Tri-County Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse Executive Director Mike Dennis said.

Dennis said the TCCADA will provide the men with an intensive outpatient program. It includes meetings three days per week for three hours each day and includes group, individual and family counseling.

Once clinically stable, the men will transition into meeting one or two times per week with a counselor or peer support specialist to maintain the progress and solidify their foundation of recovery.

All men will be assessed for their needs. If other services or medication is needed, the agency will provide those items.

RISE was founded by a cross-section of community members, churches and organizations.

“It is truly a community project,” Sibley said.

The non-denominational Christian ministry currently is occupying a portion of Orangeburg’s Southern Methodist College campus at 541 Broughton Street.

Sibley said recovery programs have long understood the need for a “higher power” to provide the supernatural strength to overcome addiction.

“However, we do not want to water down the faith,” Sibley said.

“RISE is committed to teaching the core principles of the Christian faith, such as sin, repentance and trusting in Jesus Christ for salvation and life transformation.”

While the Gospel of Jesus Christ is taught, Sibley said the program does not require any particular religious belief from applicants.

“But they must agree to participate willingly in a program that includes Christian teaching and evangelism,” Sibley said.

The ministry is currently trying to raise about $654,000 that will be used to update its donated building and offset the first three years of operating expenses.

The money will also be used to renovate some of the former college buildings to provide housing for participants, vocational training in the former shop, and classes – initially in the conference center, later in the building configured for classrooms.

The campus provides a 13,000-square-foot, two-story dormitory that will house 20 men initially, a 1,250-square-foot conference center/classroom and a shop for vocational training.

The hope is to expand to allow for the addition of 14 more men, Sibley said.

The hope is to one day include transitional housing for graduates and their families, Sibley said.

There is also a desire to eventually include an outreach ministry for women.

For more information about the ministry or how to donate, go to www.riseministrysc.org or the ministry’s Facebook page “Rise Ministry.”