Jackie Gorski
Times-Union
WARSAW — Trinity United Methodist Church, 832 E. Center St., Warsaw, is partnering with Living in Transition Effectively (LITE) by providing a place to meet for two of its programs.
RISE
Tammy Cotton, founder and executive director of LITE, said the teen Resilience, Inspiration, Support, Empowerment (RISE) support group first starting meeting in Milford in December 2023 on Sunday nights at the Milford Methodist Meeting House.
The group was successful in Milford, so LITE wanted to offer the same to kids in Warsaw. She said transportation is always an issue and Shelly Metzger, certified peer navigator for LITE, decided she would like to lead the Warsaw meeting.
“So we met with (Trinity UMC Pastor) Andrea (Kennedy) and she opened the doors to us and is allowing us to use the space and it has worked out really, really well,” Cotton said.
Kennedy said Trinity UMC has a women’s circle group and some of the women in the group invited Kennedy to a talk at the 802 Center Apartments next door to the church and Cotton was the guest speaker that day. Somewhere in Cotton’s speech, she mentioned Metzger was planning on leading RISE somewhere in the Warsaw area and was looking for a space to meet.
“And I said, ‘Tammy, let me talk to my trustees because we would love to have people in our building and it sounds like a great fit.’ And it sort of spiraled from there. We got all of our paperwork in order,” Kennedy said. “As a congregation, as a church, we’re just excited to be able to partner with LITE Recovery Hub and to be able to offer this space as a space to meet so people from Warsaw proper don’t have to trek up to Milford. We’re loving having people in the building, loving to be able to start this relationship and have people be comfortable coming here. And that’s our hope and goal.”
RISE meets at Trinity from 4 to 5 p.m. Wednesdays and provides a safe space for teens to come and share, Cotton said. The group has been meeting at the church for about a year.
During the meetings, topics include peer pressure, mental health and trauma.
“We really just leave it up to the kids and kinda see where the discussion goes. Some meetings, we’ll have just fun activities,” Cotton said.
“Again, it’s just providing safe space and getting them to come out of their shells a little bit and hopefully share and work on some of the things they’re working on and just letting them be heard. Kids, I think, sometimes feel like nobody’s listening,” Cotton said.
With the group, “we’re trying to provide a safe space and build a positive community. I think it gives kids hope. It helps them know that there are people who care about them. A lot of times, they may not have family who they feel care about them and what they’re going through. It also teaches them life skills. We talked a lot about self-reflection and how they see themselves and finding hobbies or finding things they’re interested in. It’s a whole lot of different things, but it’s really just getting them back on track if they need to, you know, just be successful as teens and know they have a purpose and they can set goals and reach those goals if choose to,” Cotton said.
So far, group size has varied with most weeks being around six to eight, Cotton said. The average age range they’re seeing is 15- and 16-year-olds, but serve ages 13-19.
She noted there are no requirements to come to attend the meetings, but they do get referrals from the juvenile probation department or teen court. Kids who are mandated to go to a certain number of meetings are asking if they could come to the meetings beyond what they’re required to or even bring friends.
For the Milford meeting, Cotton said the majority of the kids there are Wawasee students and she assumes the kids who meet at Trinity UMC are Warsaw students. However, “we’d certainly like to reach out to Tippy Valley, Whitko, you know, those schools. We’ve gotten information to those schools, but then again, transportation becomes a barrier for some people,” Cotton said.
They are able to provide transportation to the RISE meetings for Valley and Whitko students if needed. There is a Teen Reach app LITE uses for the Recovery Cafe. Any student who logs into that app can ask for rides.
CRAFT
The second group being hosted at Trinity is the Community Reinforcement And Family Training (CRAFT) group.
“This reaches and targets the family members of those who are struggling,” Cotton said. CRAFT is not to replace other organizations that help loved ones like Mom of an Addict and Parents of Addicted Loved Ones.
“CRAFT is more of a curriculum, so each week, we have a lesson. And we provide the books. There’s a book and workbook that go with it. And it just talks about positive talk, you know, when you’re talking to your loved one who’s struggling, that it doesn’t do any good to be negative to them and put them down. It teaches boundaries,” Cotton said.
The book gives examples for the group to look at during the lesson. Attendees go through situations they’ve seen similar to that. She noted some people don’t like to talk about certain situations, but “if we hold emotions in and we keep stuffing them done, we’re eventually” going to explode. “And it is helpful to the person who is struggling with mental health and addiction that their family is also learning how to deal with the situation and they’re growing as well.”
Cotton said they’ve found that for people who are coming out of incarceration or recovery program, the person has worked on their issues but their family members haven’t “and it doesn’t work because the family is still thinking this person is the same person that left when they went to jail or whatever, so it really the family get a better understanding of how deal with the loved one.”
The group currently meets at 10 a.m. Wednesdays at Trinity UMC and started a few weeks ago. Cotton said a person doesn’t have to attend every week and each week talks about a topic individually.
Cotton said her staff have personal experiences with mental health and addiction, whether through themselves or a family member, so staff members do understand what people are going through.
“We’re hear to listen, we’re here to offer guidance, resources, whatever the person might need and we just want it to be safe space,” Cotton said. She hopes the programs are able to help people and put a dent in the addiction and mental health issues in the area.
Kennedy said holding the groups at Trinity UMC really opens up the church to welcoming the community.
“It’s another way for our congregation to extend their arms and say, ‘Hey, we love you. We’re sorry you’re going through things. How can we help? How can we walk alongside you?’ ” Kennedy said.
For anyone interested in attending either group, Cotton said people are welcome to walk in.
