1. What is the Nazareth Program all about?
2. How long does the program take?

What is the Nazareth Program all about?

The Nazareth Formation House, A Bob Garon Therapeutic Community Center employs the Therapeutic Community (TC) approach to rehabilitating drug dependents. This method has been proven the most effective in rescuing drug dependents from their addiction. The therapeutic community is a residential unit in which "residents" live together in an extended family environment.

It features discipline with love and respect, and constructive criticism. The center teaches those with low self-esteem to deal with life's problems without turning to any form of escape like drugs, alcohol, gambling and other substance abuse.

In the community, the "residents" gain progressively higher status and responsibilities as they internalize socially acceptable behavior. Individual commitment to the community is emphasized, with senior residents and staff counseling new residents and serving as role models and rational authorities.

Unlike many treatment centers in the country, the Nazareth Formation House has no walls and no guards to forcibly hold its residents. Rather it relies on a wall of love and concern and the close cooperation of parents and family to keep the residents in treatment. Members of the community watch each other following the concept of "I am my brother's keeper".

The Nazareth Formation House, A Bob Garon Therapeutic Community Center is God-centered. Though it accepts persons of all faiths, its program features morning, noontime and evening prayers, spiritual meditations, religious services, Bible studies, weekly confessions, daily mass and monthly retreats. It believes that its residents need the help and guidance of a Higher Power as much as the support of the community if they are to get well.

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How long does the program take?

Primary rehabilitation has no specific time frame as some move forward morequickly than others. However, phase one usually takes between 8 to 12 months depending on the progress of the resident. During this period, the resident is confined to the center. In beginning re-entry (additional 6 - 8 months), the resident spends More and more time home, enrolls in school or gets a job even as he returns to the center in the evenings. In re-entry proper (additional 4 - 6 months), he is at work or in School and away from the center most of the time and is required to spend only weekends in the center.After graduation, he is required to visit the center only every two weeks.

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