News Channel 3 and the H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation presented another Impact Grant to a local nonprofit working to improve lives and help those in need.
A $45,000 charitable gift was awarded to the ABC Recovery Center in Indio, which aims to help those with substance use disorders achieve lifelong sobriety and re-enter the community as healthy and responsible individuals.
Since 1963, the nonprofit has provided treatment, housing, education, and support for thousands of people.
“Anybody, if you want help and if you stick your hand out we’re going to embrace you and we’re going to bring you in. And we’re going to meet you where you’re at,” CEO Chris Yingling said.
Yingling is just one of many of the center’s success stories.
“I have been almost 16 years sober, I have a 10-year-old daughter, I have a family that I never thought I would have. And I have a group of coworkers and second family members in my life,” program director Ally Anderson said.
Like many recovery centers, the fentanyl crisis has been especially challenging. Yingling said that since 2020, they’ve reversed about 20 fentanyl overdoses at the facility.
“Here we have a social issue that is killing over 100,000 people every single year, and it’s just not getting the attention from the community that it needs in order to be funded to have some drastic measures put in place to combat this,” he said.
The center hopes that a new computer learning center will enhance its efforts to better train staff and participants about the dangers of fentanyl and other addictions. The price tag: $45,000.
And so the H.N. and Frances C. Berger Foundation and News Channel 3 arrived at the center with a very special surprise: an Impact Grant for the full $45,000.
“We know it’s only going to get worse, unless we all try to raise awareness as to the problems that we are all experiencing, our families are experiencing. With everything from trying to identify people that are using, to preventing the problem, to recovery,” KESQ General Manager Jerry Upham said.
“Thank you. This allows us the freedom to be creative and really improve our services,” Yingling said.
Read the article as published on the KESQ website here.
