Sober Shuttle Supports Recovery Community
By Luke Schmaltz, VOICES Newsletter Editor
Jim Booker is co-founder of the Sober Shuttle, an outreach service dedicated to transporting people who are in or seeking recovery. He runs the service along with his wife, Linda, and a team of volunteers.
An Essential Need
“We are not state or federally funded,” Booker begins. “We depend solely on private donations. We offer cost-free transportation throughout the state. Nobody gets paid here. All our volunteers are people in recovery. Currently, we have around 12 people on staff, and we always send them out two at a time.”
“One of the things we are proud of,” Booker continues, “Is the fact that transportation is the number one barrier for getting people into recovery and keeping them in recovery. We follow the people we transport through their treatment; we don’t just forget about them when we drop them off.”
“We give them our business cards and immediately present them with the opportunity to stay connected. We also have three recovery coaches connected with the Sober Shuttle, and we offer people we help an opportunity to talk to them as well.”
Making a Difference
Booker’s wife, Linda, offers additional insight into the Sober Shuttle’s contribution to the recovery community. “We help people with resources, and we help them get into treatment,” she says. “We also make ourselves available for people to reach out to if they need to talk. I try to get people to open up about those things that make them feel not worthy, and I just treat them like human beings.”
“If they have a problem,” Linda continues, “I let them know they can always come to me. Anything that may come up in their recovery journey, I can help out with it, or at the very least, lead them in the right direction.
“We do commitments which are events where we get a group of people in recovery together, we go to rehabs and detoxes, and we share our stories of recovery with the people there – what we have learned, our strengths, what gave us hope, and where our journeys gratefully ended up.”
“I met a young lady when we did a commitment who was really sad and sour about recovery, but she wanted it badly. So, at the commitment, she opened up a little bit about it and I engaged her in further conversation about AA and the 12 steps.”
“She wanted me to return because she wanted me to help her understand how the steps in recovery work. She also needed help obtaining a phone. She asked me if I would work with her as a recovery coach.”
“We want to show people that it is possible to change the person you are right now into who you want to be.”
Community Connection
Booker explains how the Sober Shuttle’s operating funds are raised through grassroots outreach. “Linda, and one of our board of directors will go out on a weekend and set up a table in front of the Stop’n‘Shop in Revere,” he says. “We do what we call ‘storefront table talk’ where we set up a table with all of our products, brochures, and resources and we invite people to come over and talk to us and we share what we know about recovery with them and the supports that are out there.”
“I just celebrated my 18th year in recovery,” Booker says. “I have been associated with AA for nearly 50 years, and I have seen a lot of overdoses and a lot of deaths. I have been extremely fortunate that none of these losses have hit close to home. Regardless, the emotions, empathy, and sympathy are always there for the losses of any specific community or population.”
Booker again cites good fortune amid the opioid crisis. “We haven’t lost anyone close to the Sober Shuttle to the disease. As far as my family goes, I can take credit for being the one who should have been lost. My family stuck by me during all those years when I really didn’t know I was hurting people. An alcoholic or an addict doesn’t realize they are hurting anybody, they just know they are hurting themselves.”
Origins of Recovery
“When I turned the corner at age 49, I was living in Bridgewater and taking the train into Brockton,” Booker says. “I was sleeping in the woods with the homeless people when I had my own apartment because those were the people who understood me and the people who I understood. The entire world outside of me knew nothing about me and I knew nothing about it – which included my family.”
“One day, it was pouring rain after I had been sleeping in the weeds for four days. I was waiting for the train to Bridgewater and looking at what was happening on Legion Parkway. I saw people lining up outside the barroom an hour early. I saw people running out of the two motels across the street because they skipped paying the rent or they were in a hurry to find their next fix. I saw the johns driving up and down the streets beeping their horns at the girls, trying to pick them up. Just then, it dawned on me that this was my life passing before my eyes and I broke down in tears.”
“The train went by me, and I decided to go to Brockton Hospital and put myself into detox. From there I moved on to East Boston Rehab and eventually graduated. In the meantime, I went back to school and got my bachelor’s degree in psychology at Stonehill. Once out of rehab, I moved into their sober house and started working for them. After doing that for a while, I went back to school and got my master’s degree in human services.”
Stepping Up
“Right about this time,” Jim continues, “Bay Cove Human Services asked me if I wanted to run a mental health house in Quincy. I took on the responsibility and it was like taking a right hand turn from the far-left side of the highway.”
“Working as the program director for nine years, I saw a lot more death than I have seen in the substance use world. Either way, it is devastating to see the tragic death of somebody that you know, somebody that has been close to you, someone who had an impression on you, or someone that you left an impression on. It is especially hard for the families and loved ones who knew the deceased like nobody else did.”
“When I was at East Boston Rehab in 2009, a bunch of friends and I got together and started doing commitments nearly every day of the month,” Booker says. “We decided to call ourselves the Sober Shuttle. We were not yet a nonprofit, we were just a bunch of people traveling around speaking to others to try and give them hope that there is a better way of life.”
“As we kept doing this, we noticed that many of the people in these programs did not have enough clothes. From the outside, they looked like they needed a little more help. So, we started a clothing program for homeless people and for people in recovery. But it wasn’t until 2017, after I graduated from Walden University, when I decided to start up the Sober Shuttle again in full force.”
Outreach and Goodwill
“We established ourselves as a nonprofit and began developing additional programs. We have a food assistance program, a laundry assistance program, and a free CharlieCard program so new residents of halfway houses can access public transportation for finding work. Once a month, the Sober Shuttle goes out with Elaine Mitrano of the Boston Backpack Project. We give out backpacks, clothes, food, and water to people who need assistance.”
Our telephone hours are 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Monday through Friday and 9:00 a.m. until 12:00 noon on Saturdays. We check our messages often and if someone is in real bad shape after hours or on a Sunday, we will make an exception and go pick them up.
“Our main concern is the safety and the security of the individual who needs to be transported. Nine out of 10 times, we can work out the circumstances when someone needs to be picked up and taken somewhere. When things don’t line up, then we will call them an Uber for Business and fulfill their transport needs that way.”
Booker offers academic insight for people who may be struggling with mental health or substance use. “When I was in school, I enjoyed studying the work of Sigmund Freud. He has an observation that said, ‘Every individual is a container that continually absorbs information.’ One thing I strongly encourage is to use somebody as your container to whom you can voice your problems and accomplishments. Everybody needs somebody they can sit down and talk to and have trust in.”
“It’s not all about structure and discipline and following rules. It is about how we can grow together. It is constant connection that makes people flourish. At any given time, anyone can suffer demise. It is so important that we realize that and treasure the minutes we have together.”
If you are interested in supporting the Sober Shuttle in their efforts to support the recovery community, you can make a donation here.