The Fellowship Center is planning new facility in Oceanside

By: MARGA KELLOGG - Staff Writer | Saturday, July 28, 2007 11:07 PM PDT ∞

NORTH COUNTY ---- If you talk to the men who live at The Fellowship Center recovery facility in Escondido, nearby residents and police, they'll tell you the center is a good neighbor.

They'll also tell you that a second center planned near the San Luis Rey Mission in Oceanside will not threaten nearby elderly mobile-home owners and schoolchildren with crime and violence, as some residents fear.

Oceanside residents who live near the property at 4152 Mission Ave, where the new center could house 59 men in a mission-style compound, have protested in a petition to City Hall and have held rallies near the proposed site.

But some who live and work around the Escondido center say the fears are unfounded.

Toya Reece, who for more than 10 years has owned a home at 701 E. 2nd Ave., across the quiet residential street to the south, said having the men as neighbors has "been very pleasant."

The entire neighborhood has benefited from having them there she said, pointing to the center's night patrol program, in which a team of men patrols the neighborhood. She also noted that the men work at community events such as Escondido's First Night at New Year's, Cruisin' Grand and street fairs.

"When there's work to be done in our yards, or the senior citizens need help, we can call on them, too," Reece said.

Founded in 1963 by an attorney who started meetings at one of the facility's dozen or so buildings, The Fellowship Center has given hundreds of men struggling with alcohol and drug abuse a second chance at life. Its program is based on the principles that experience is the basis of authority and responsibility for recovery lies within the participant.

While recovery facilities such as Alpha Project/Casa Raphael in Vista offer short-term help for those addicted to alcohol or drugs, The Fellowship Center is the only state licensed, long-term residential recovery center for men in North County.

"I've been here for eight years and I've never been aware of any criminal problems or violence there," said Victoria Jones, director of North County Serenity House, a women's rehabilitation compound just east of The Fellowship Center.

Steve and Henry

On a quiet afternoon last week, about a dozen of the Escondido center's 117 residents gathered for one of their regular support meetings. Among them were Steve Arevalo and Henry W. Scribner.

While both are in the same place, they arrived by very different roads. Scribner is a former city manager and aviator with the U.S. Air Force, while Arevalo has been in and out of institutions since he was 13, first a boys' school and then prison.

A common thread is their love for the center, the people there, and their commitment to recovery.

"I've started having dreams again. You know, how, like when you're a kid," said Arevalo, with tears in his eyes. "The most important thing is this place has given me a whole life."

Arevalo, 48, has been at The Fellowship Center for two years. He has been reunited with his family, his two daughters and is working for a moving company.

Scribner, 74, and a great-great grandfather, is retired. He said he found The Fellowship Center while riding a bus.

"I met a man on the bus who had connections to the center," he said. "I was trying to find out what was available."

"I think you come here with the mission of trying to heal yourself," he said. "Once you make that commitment, you think you have an obligation to see it through. Some have been here two years and gone on to be model citizens. There are an awful lot of brains here."

With confidentiality being a cornerstone of the program, the men volunteered to talk about their experiences because, they said, the center has given them the structure and freedom to be successful in pursuing their own recovery.

The program

Bounded on the north by commercial businesses, including Clinica Medica/Las Palmas and Dr. Travis Westermeyer's office for foot and ankle surgery, the quiet, manicured group of buildings includes Robinson Hall, Cronin Hall, a library, a volleyball court and several detached independent living buildings.

The men who live at the center in central Escondido at 737 E. Grand Ave., seek treatment voluntarily and are accepted only after rigorous interviews and a criminal background check. No one with a history of sexual offenses is admitted, said Paul Savo, the center's executive director.

Those needing treatment involving methadone or other such drug therapy are not served at the center and are referred to other appropriate services. As well, those with severe mental health disorders or who pose a threat to themselves or others are referred out.

Residents in the early stages of recovery live in the main buildings and sleep in bunks or single beds. Those who have successfully established a foundation in the community, have a support group, or are employed, have an opportunity to live in what are called "exit" homes. The homes are part of the center, but separate from the main buildings.

"Once you're in those exit homes, it's about as independent as you can get," said Savo.

Savo said the 52 people on a waiting list to be admitted are the most he's seen since he began working with the center in 1984. The wait is three to four weeks, maybe longer.

"There's always a waiting list," he said. "That's why we need another facility."

Speaking from experience

Jones, the director of Escondido's Serenity House, calls the men at The Fellowship Center "the best neighbors we could have."

"I love having them next door and I respect the program," Jones said. "If something were to happen, we could call on those men in a second."

An important part of the program, Savo said, is that the center be in a residential area so residents can become involved in the community.

Escondido police Lt. Craig Carter called the center "very well controlled."

"It's not an area of high calls for service," he said. "I'd venture to say most people don't even know it's there," he said.

Carter said Escondido police and fire fighters have responded to a total of six calls at the center in the last year.

Four were police calls, he said, and two were medical aid calls involving chest and abdominal pain.

Of the police calls, one was The Fellowship Center reporting a vandalism in progress in the area, another was from the center reporting what they thought was a person driving drunk in the neighborhood, and a third was a suspicious person report, Carter said.

He said the only one he could directly link to the center was a call about someone at the center who was disturbing the peace.

"The officers got there to find out what was going on and the subject was gone," Carter said. "I can't even say whether that was a person with the Fellowship."

Concerns in Oceanside

While neighbors in Escondido say having the center nearby is a plus, some residents of the seniors-only San Luis Rey mobile-home park in Oceanside and parents of children who attend a nearby Montessori school and elementary schools are not convinced.

One parent, Loucel Bugawan, who has a child attending the private Old Mission Montessori School near the site, said in an e-mail that she "doesn't know of any parent that would allow their child to attend a school right next to a drug and alcohol recovery center."

Still others have said they are worried about crime and a possible drop in property values if The Fellowship Center builds the two-story, 16,591-square-foot recovery center on the lot it owns.

Sitting at the Escondido center, Arevalo said concern about a facility such as the one he lives in is "normal" because most people don't know much about the situation.

"If people would ask more, they would understand a lot better," he said. "It's what you do when you get here that matters," he said.

Arevalo is taking classes to become a counselor and a specialist, someone who supervises men at the center.

"Here, you have that second chance. I'm grabbing onto it with two hands, and there's nothing that's going to stop me," he said.

Contact Marga Kellogg at 760-901-4067 or mkellogg@nctimes.com.