> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # It’s all about CLARE - URL: https://www.smdp.com/its-all-about-clare/ - Published: 2006-07-03T15:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T18:42:49.000Z - Author: Guest Author - Tags: Events, Venice, #archive-import, Homeless *Back into life* ■ Licensed by the State of California Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs, CLARE provides services to all those seeking recovery from alcoholism and substance abuse, regardless of their ability to pay. ■ CLARE is the only free social model agency on the Westside. ■ Four categories of service: outpatient, residential, family and support CLARE LOCATIONS ■ 11 programs ■ Santa Monica, Culver City, Venice and Los Angeles. CLARE MEALS ■ 300 meals daily — assessment, residential treatment programs. CLARE NUMBER SERVED PER YEAR ■ Each year, as many as 26,000 drug-addicted and alcoholic men and women turn to CLARE for help. ■ 2005: CLARE provided treatment to 2,713 adults: 74 percent men; 26 percent women; 15 percent with dual-diagnosis; and 58 percent homeless. ■ 2005: 90 percent of the clients completed their individual program and more than 75 percent met or exceeded their individual goals. ■ Additional results for 2005 include: ■ 96 percent detox/primary clients successful ■ 90 percent of clients remained sober while enrolled ■ 75 percent of clients found full-time employment ■ 80 percent of clients successfully completed the program CLARE DETOX ■ Serving 37 adults at one time ■ 2005: 889 adults served CLARE RECOVERY CENTERS ■ Men’s: 58 beds, 200 men served annually (237 in 2005). ■ Women’s: 14 beds, 65 women served annually CLARE SOBER LIVING ■ 100 beds in low-cost fully-furnished apartments for men and women ■ Four separate neighborhoods between Westwood and Venice ■ 2005: 184 adults served CLARE OUTPATIENT PROGRAM ■ 2005: 338 adults served ■ Clients stayed in the program for an average of six months. CLARE DRUG COURT AND DUI PROGRAM ■ 1972: CLARE developed and opened the first class in Los Angeles to educate, treat and reform drinking drivers. ■ California’s Proposition 36: CLARE works closely with the criminal justice system to provide services for individuals charged with non-violent alcohol and drug offenses. ■ 2005: 660 clients served CLARE Serial Inebriate Outreach Program ■ Began July 2005 ■ 125 consultations to date ■ 33 percent of participants enrolled in a CLARE program CLARE WOMEN AND CHILDREN ■ 2 centers ■ 12 mothers and as many as 16 of their children ■ 2005: 15 women with children served CLARITY FOR YOUTH Since its inception in 2004, Clarity for Youth has been implemented in following schools: Venice High, Temescal High (Palisades High Alternative), Venice Teen Clinic, Youth Build L.A. High (Santa Monica High Alternative), Kayne Eras (Special Education School), Malibu High School, McKinley Elementary School, Culver City middle and high schools. HOW DID YOU FIRST GET INVOLVED WITH THE CLARE FOUNDATION? “The money was gone, everything just came to a grinding halt and I started calling. I had heard about CLARE, and I started calling about three weeks before I got a bed here... The apartment I had rented for my mother, because I had no more drugs, she was kicking me out of it. It was really my apartment but I was on the street. I had no money, I was losing my daughter. The abusive boyfriend that I was currently with had gotten arrested, he was about to get out of jail, and I was like,‘If he gets out and I’m not gone, it’s over. I’m dead. I’m dead.’ Because I was trying really hard to get sober, but my pride didn’t want to go to a meeting. Even though I didn’t even get sober in LA before — nobody knew me here — but I still didn’t want to raise my hand as a newcomer. I was screwed up... I was in the depths of my disease. All I knew was that CLARE was in Santa Monica, (which) seemed at the time like it would be far enough for me. Because I was afraid that anywhere else I went I would just walk out and get loaded. Because every place else from South Central all the way to Koreatown to the valley was like, I had sold drugs there, I had gotten loaded there.” It’s very hard to wake up from such depths. How did you do it? “It was the moment of clarity. People had been telling me where to go. And the thing is also the social worker told me, ‘if you get into a program in the next two weeks, you’ll have your daughter back in six months.’ So that gave me something to hold onto... I came into detox on Dec. 4\. Johnny met me on the corner and pulled a bottle out of my hand and threw it in the trash can. He was like,‘Come on, Jennifer,’ and like dragged me in, thankfully. Johnny used to run the assessment center here.” You say that the first day at clare was really scary for you. What was going through your mind at that time? “I had no idea what was going to happen. I had no idea. It was really my first true leap of faith because I walked through here with a little black dress on, like a cocktail dress, and my little purse in my hand, and a leopard skin jacket and sandals. That’s how I came in, in the middle of winter. \[My mom\] is still in denial, but in treatment coming up on six months. I had her go far away because as much as I love CLARE, my recovery is my recovery, and my neighborhood is my neighborhood. When they get together it’s dangerous. I’ve rebuilt a relationship with my step-dad. We were mad about — I don’t know what, some stupid conversation 15 years ago — and I was loaded and he didn’t like that. A lot of repairs have been done in my family. WHAT’S YOUR SOBRIETY DATE? “Dec. 17, 2002\. So I just got three and a half years, this month.” DID YOU EVENTUALLY GET CUSTODY OF YOUR DAUGHTER? “During that time my social worker changed and I had a social worker come up there and tell me that she didn’t care if I had 20 years of sobriety, I was never getting my daughter back — they were placing her with her paternal aunt. Which they did, place her with her paternal aunt, who physically abused her while she was in care with her, unfortunately. I went into sober living and I had first monitored visits with my daughter, and then got a couple of overnights that summer... And you know, I had one court date after that, and because I was where I was they just gave me my daughter back. It was just the weirdest thing in the world... And then through women and children’s at CLARE we started doing a family group. Being a resident there requires that you’re involved in this family counseling... Through that, we were given referrals further out through the center where that is to get into family therapy and individual therapy for both my daughter and myself, which we’re still in, but we are wrapping it up. We’re going to be finished by the end of summer; at least my daughter will be. She gets to just be a kid going into sixth grade now.” What do you think of lockdown facilities, or people who use the freedom they are given to relapse? “My personal experience from being in recovery at one time before is that when I relapsed, even though I was out for 17 years, in my mind, I always knew that if I survived, I would have to come back into recovery. I just knew that it was a matter of time before I hit a bottom, and I knew that there were programs available. They say that once you’re exposed to the rooms of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous and recovery that it kind of screws up your using forever, and it kind of does. Some people say they go to meetings and they learn about all kinds of things they never did and go back out there and try all that stuff because they never tried it, you know? So I think if people are gonna get loaded, they’re gonna get loaded... I think people that go back out there and hang themselves, all I can say is that I hope they make it back. I hope they make it back because this is it: it’s jails, institutions, or death — that’s it. Or recovery. There are choices. And here’s the cool thing: Even if you go to CLARE once and you screw up, you can come back again, and again, and again, unless you assault somebody, of course... Because a lot of treatment centers, if you get thrown out or you leave or whatever, you have to wait like six months before you can go back through their program. That puts limits and it gives people excuses of why they can’t (get sober)... It really is a positive reinforcement, I think, the environment here. It’s all, ‘you can do it, you can do it, you can do it, and guess what? Here are the tools to do it.’” During your internship at clare you were working in assessment and helping people through detox. Did you use your past experience to help shed light on these people’s problems? “Not a lot... I’ll occasionally say, ‘I was once sitting in that chair, like that very same chair, exactly where you’re at.’ And they’ll say,‘Oh, look at you now.’ And it’s like,‘Yeah, exactly.’ I think it’s inspiring to people that they can see somebody sitting up with clear eyes and a smile on their face, and let them know that you’ve been there, exactly where they were.” IS WORKING AT CLARE AN AFFIRMATION FOR YOUR SOBRIETY? “It helps, but it’s not my program of recovery, that’s for sure. I’ll tell you, when I was doing my internship here, I had to up my meetings because I need to be sure that I keep the two separate and continue to work on my recovery... I relapsed before, so I’m very cautious about my sobriety now. I hold it dear, and I need to make sure that my sobriety comes first. If I even feel it slipping away I just have to change that, I change things.” *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on July 3, 2006.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/070306.pdf?ref=smdp.com)