St. Joseph's Villa provided a building for the McShin Academy. (Photo courtesy St. Joseph's Villa)
For high school students in recovery from substance abuse, remaining in their typical school environment — often where adolescents are exposed to drug and alcohol abuse in the first place — can lead to relapse.
That’s why the McShin Foundation, Virginia’s leading peer-to-peer recovery community organization, partnered with another local nonprofit, St. Joseph’s Villa, to open a high school specifically for students in recovery at the Villa campus on Brook Road.
“Families all of a sudden [are in] an uproar. They catch their kids with heroin, marijuana, whatever — so many people react with, ‘Let’s send the kid to Idaho or Utah,’ ” says Craig Hedley, the director of community partnerships at St. Joseph’s Villa. “Eventually they’re going to have to come back and deal with that here, so why not deal with it here? We have the resources to do it.”
McShin Academy CEO Honesty Liller (Photo by Jay Paul)
The McShin Academy, which operated out of the McShin Foundation’s building on Dumbarton Road before moving to St. Joseph’s Villa this fall, is run separately from the Villa’s four other specialty schools. It is funded by private tuition, with scholarship opportunities available through the McShin Foundation. St. Joseph’s Villa will provide education services, and the nonprofits will work with families to create specialized academic and recovery plans for each student.
Honesty Liller, CEO of the McShin Academy, says a program like this could have taken her down a different path in life. Liller, like all administrators at the McShin Foundation, is also in recovery. She says her substance abuse began when she was 12, and at 17, she found heroin — and survived an overdose.
According to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, nine in 10 people who meet the clinical criteria for substance use disorders began smoking, drinking or using other drugs during adolescence. The academy did not yet have students as of early November, but administrators say enrollment is open throughout the year.
“If I can help these kids not go down the path I went down, that’s all worth it,” Liller says. “Even if we just help one.”
To find out more, call 804-774-6662 or visit mcshinacademy.com.
