By Kalvin Valdillez, Tulalip News
From the northside Tulalip Resort Casino parking lot, you could hear the sound of music, laughter, excited conversations, and an occasional joyous shriek, followed by a kerplunk and splish-splash of water, on the afternoon of September 3. It was an 80-degree day and though the volunteers of the large dunk tank, at the center of the Tulalip Amphitheater, feigned terror of falling into the tank, one could easily surmise that they felt a bit of relief from the weather once they hit the cold water.
Fold in tables with portable awnings were placed along the vendor plateau of the amphitheater. And catching some shade underneath the canopies were friendly faces who were ready to answer any questions from the local recovery community. In addition to the many information booths, there was also a dedicated hair braiding area, a lemonade stand, a hot dog kiosk, and a haircut station. There were smiles everywhere you looked as both participants and graduates of the Tulalip Healing to Wellness Court caught up with each other and visited the resource tables.
“I came out today in honor of past family and friends, to support my own sobriety, and to come together with the sobriety community and enjoy time with my friends,” shared Wellness Court participant, Victor Garcia. “I visited pretty much all of the booths today, the dunk tank, Erika’s lemonade, and I got my haircut. It’s a really cool event and a lot of fun.”
Over the past several years, the Healing to Wellness Court has had a significant impact on the Tulalip community. The intensive program has helped many Tribal members find sobriety with a personalized 18-month plan that always incorporates a cultural component. Through group therapy and events, the people in the Wellness Court have developed community and found strength in supporting one another.
Recently, a number of graduates of the program created an alumni group where they meet twice a week at the Tulalip Recovery Resource Center and continue to uplift each other in their daily lives.
Erika Moore, Wellness Court Treatment Coordinator, explained, “We’ve been trying to start an alumni group for the longest time because we wanted people to be able to have a fun and safe place to go after Wellness Court. We finally got a group of people who all like to hang out. The alumni is just a group of friends who enjoy helping each other stay in recovery because it’s really hard when you get out in the real world and you don’t have that sober support. And that’s exactly why we built the alumni group.”
Wanting to extend their support to the entire recovery community, the alumni planned this event with an emphasis on helping people access the many resources that Tulalip and its surrounding communities offer.
Said Wellness Court Alum, Kyle Moses, “This is the first big event that we’ve actually done. It’s something that’s needed, because we have support in the courtroom, and certain people have certain groups together. But for us all to be able to come together, outside of the court, outside of our groups, and be there to support each other it’s important. Any resource event is good. There’s a lot of resources that people don’t know about, so being able to see them in person, it’s always a good thing.”
In total, there were a dozen resource tables at the four-hour event including TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), TOCLA (Tulalip Office of Civil Legal Aid), the Recovery Resource Center, Cocaine Anonymous, Holman Recovery Center, the Washington State Department of Social & Health Services, and the Quil Ceda Creek Counseling Company. The goal for both the alumni and the Wellness Court is to build on this event and grow the number of resource tables and participants year after year.
“This is just the beginning,” exclaimed Leora Jones, Wellness Court Program Manager. “We’re hoping that we can continue this and continue bringing in more resources for the participants and continue to collaborate with all these departments. These are all resources that the participants can benefit from and can help move them along their journey. I think that a lot of people don’t know that these resources are available through the Tribe. And so, the idea of it was to bring them all in one place and have the participants be able to go to each booth and see what’s available for them. And the dunk tank was just a bonus. It’s so great for the participants and the alumni to come together. I think that just having them in a group setting like this, they thrive off of each other. They understand each other’s struggle; they want to help each other. And that’s what we want for them.”
After winning a hat in the raffle, Victor took a moment to share, “It’s a really loving feeling, that’s for sure. To be able to have [the alumni] there for you, as well as the Wellness Court. They watch out for us, they help keep us on track, they hold us accountable, and they give us the tools we need to move forward, even if it’s small steps. I think the sobriety community had a really good time this summer, and this was a good close to the summer.”