THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, August 18, 1996 TAG: 9608170011
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 47 lines
Leaders of a private Hampton Roads program for drug addicts plan to recycle both the decommissioned destroyer tender Yosemite and lost lives.
If a berth can be found for the 531-foot-long Yosemite somewhere in Hampton Roads, it could provide a new life for up to 500 drug and alcohol abusers as they try to beat their habits for good and prepare for careers.
Called Ships At Sea, the program was founded by Bishop John Gimenez, pastor of Rock Church in Virginia Beach, himself a former drug addict. For 16 years, he says, he was either on the street shooting dope or behind bars because of it, before a religious experience changed his life.
Starting Monday, 15 men recovering from substance abuse will begin attending computer classes in a few well-equipped computer classrooms in a converted warehouse in Portsmouth. That will be home for what's called the Computer and Character Development School until the ship has a home and can be turned into a school.
In 1993, U.S. Sens. Chuck Robb and John Warner persuaded Congress to provide the Yosemite, then being decommissioned, to the Ships At Sea program. The Navy left in place all facilities - from sheet-metal shops to a barber shop. Linda Jennings, executive director of Ships At Sea, said it will cost roughly $4 million to ready the ship and get it through its first year of operation, then $2 million annually to continue the program.
Ships At Sea operates with public and private funds. The needed $4 million is available, Jennings said, if a berth can be found. Her hope is that the Navy will provide one.
At a ribbon cutting for the new school earlier this month, Jennings said, ``In this state and other states, we can successfully provide detoxification and treatment for a substance abuser. The problem is, once he is detoxified, we send him out into the streets without an education, without vocational training and without character development.''
The program, Jennings said, is intended to bring men on board the ship for a year and provide general-equivalency diplomas, vocational training, character development, job placement and follow-up services. Plans call for adding women at some point, either on a second ship or on land.
Speaking from experience, Bishop Gimenez said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony, ``Rehabilitation is nothing if you don't have something to go to - a goal or a vision.''
We wish Ships At Sea Godspeed and hope a berth for the Yosemite isfound soon. Sad to say, many men and women need the program's help. by CNB