Taylorville Safe Passage graduates 950 from recovery program

TAYLORVILLE, Ill. (WAND) — A central Illinois woman is working with Taylorville's Safe Passage program to help those struggling with addiction get into treatment.

"I always believed in God — so I always had hope. So I don't think there was a rock bottom because, I think, in order to hit rock bottom there can't be hope involved. And I always had hope," Bonnie Goodwin told WAND News.

Goodwin started using drugs and alcohol at 12 years old, and by 40, she was behind bars. Now she is almost nine years sober, and working to help others.

"I met my biological father when I was 12, and he started taking me to the bars with him," Goodwin explained.

Goodwin said alcohol abuse was her first step down the road to addiction.

"I was the daughter of two alcoholic parents who would fight. They would separate and every time they separated, I would move to a new town," Goodwin said.

She bounced around towns, never able to put down roots.

"Tower Hill, Shelbyville, Altamont, St. Elmo, Hot Springs, Arkansas, I mean I've lived everywhere," Goodwin added.

But the one constant in her life was drugs and alcohol.

"I was 14 when my mom sent me to a foster home. That was after I had used PCP. I was out of hand, and she couldn't control me, and she didn't know what to do," Goodwin explained.

She said she was raped after returning home to St. Elmo. The rest of her teens and 20s were a blur of PCP, cocaine, meth and bath salts.

"Just the burned bridges. My children, I've had five children and I haven't raised any of them. I lost two of them when they were young. Still, I didn't see the bottom, I was always blaming somebody else," Goodwin told WAND News.

Finally at 40 years old, she was arrested, and forced to detox for the first time.

"I think sitting in prison, my head cleared a little bit. I still had it in my head I was going to get out and do the same thing. But it was a God thing," Goodwin said.

She said thanks to faith and counseling, she's getting ready to celebrate nine years sober. Now, she works for Amare, helping others struggling with addiction get into treatment.

"If I have somebody that I am pretty sure I won't be able to get into treatment — I call her because I know that she can and I know that she will," Goodwin said.

She's talking about Denise Evans with the Safe Passage program at the Taylorville Police Department.

"Now, once they're here at the station, they're safe," Chief Dwayne Wheeler explained.

Chief Wheeler said the Taylorville Safe Passage program launched on July 1, 2019. As part of the program, anyone can walk into the police station and ask for help.

"The transformation of what they used to look like, and what they're doing today, is what keeps us motivated to keep doing this program," Chief Wheeler told WAND News.

He said the program has now seen 950 graduates, helping make Taylorville a safer, healthier community.

Safe Passage is funded by state grants and donations. Those who complete the detox portion of the program are then connected to outpatient therapy sessions. Staff also help connect graduates with housing and items needed to begin the next chapter of their lives.