For three and a half years, Erika Kleinschmidt served as an AmeriCorps Peer Recovery Coach.
She is now the Peer Support Coordinator for Oneida County Human Services overseeing the current recovery coaches.
“It helps assist people that are usually at their lowest, and we come in as nonjudgmental people that want to help support them in any way that they feel is important to them,” said Kleinschmidt.
A peer recovery coach is a person with lived experience with substance abuse that is essentially available to people in recovery 24/7.
“When somebody's struggling at 11 o'clock at night or two in the morning, and we're awake, we're able to answer that call or text when they're struggling with triggers or wanting to relapse or anything like that,” said Kleinschmidt.
Kleinschmidt explained the program is unique compared to other rehabilitation programs in that the person drives what they need out of it and the coach supports them.
The recovery coach program is a partnership with Marshfield Clinic and AmeriCorps which covers the cost of a living stipend and some education expenses.
Oneida County has had coaches for several years now.
It had three coaches this year, with a fourth hosted by the Rhinelander Police Department, until the announcement came April 25 that the funding for it and AmeriCorps programs nationwide were being cut as part of the federal government's effort to reduce fraud and waste spending.
Three days later on Monday, Kleinschmidt was notified of the impact locally.
“At 9:00 am we received that email that all services need to end, and that we needed to terminate immediately for the coaches. So that was kind of chaotic, because they were serving altogether 81 people,” said Kleinschmidt.
Kleinschmidt says Oneida County acted quickly and was able to create Limited Term Employee positions and fund them temporarily with separate grant funding.
Rhinelander did the same for the one with the police department with city council approving the change at its May 12 meeting.
“Our community needs it. The people that we have are limited on resources, so it's important to have the coach available to them,” Capt. Josh Chiamulera told city council at the meeting.
It’s not a permanent solution.
Kleinschmidt and others like Tony Hallman hope the decision will be reverse and AmeriCorps will thrive again.
“The individuals that are served are in need of assistance, and that assistance is from the 430 members who probably interact with 1000s of people in the state of Wisconsin, they're all affected,” said Hallman. “Elderly people, people needing health insurance and don't know where to go and how to deal with that, and individuals that are in recovery from drug addiction. I mean, that's all just immediately stopped.”
Hallman is a commissioner on the Wisconsin National & Community Service Board.
The board works closely with AmeriCorps members in the state to make sure needs are being met and everything is following federal rules and regulations.
There were 25 AmeriCorps programs in operation in Wisconsin until funding was cut.
Most corps members get a living stipend during their service and become eligible for funding for future education expenses or to apply for certain student loans.
Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, gutted AmeriCorps, a 30-year-old federal agency that dispatches 200,000 volunteers and hundreds of millions of dollars.
Hallman says he was shocked and devastated by the decision.
“For the 20 years that I have served on the board, I have seen no waste, no abuse, no fraud,” said Hallman. “If this board was not prompt and watch the federal dollars and how they're spent, and to make sure that what we get is what the program said they were going to do. If this was not a good board to be on, to do that, I would not have served on that board.”
Like Hallman, Kleinschmidt says the work they do is a service. 40% of the people the coaches work with make $10,000 or less annually. The recovery coach is a free service to people.
From January to March of this year, clients that worked with peer support services say its helped them maintain sobriety, with about half maintaining it for 60 days or more.
The program also goes beyond the one-on-one coaching with the team putting on community events.
Kleinschmidt adds it’s also a stepping stone for people that want a career as a substance use counselor or a mental health counselor, a field that is in need of workers.
“It's such a needed and positive program. I personally think every clinical team should have a recovery coach or a peer support specialist on their team,” said Kleinschmidt.
Kleinschmidt hopes things will change and they’ll be able to use AmeriCorps for the Recovery Coach program again.
About two dozen states, including Wisconsin, are suing the Trump Administration over the dismantling of AmeriCorps and the cancellation of funding.
This story is part of WXPR’s focus on solutions in the Northwoods. You can learn more about our Solutions Journalism effort and share here.
