Impact Feature: McShin Foundation
Founded in 2004, the McShin Foundation works daily to combat Substance Use Disorders and help Richmonders in recovery. As part of their peer-oriented social model program, the McShin Foundation offers experiences to individuals in recovery to help build confidence and open avenues for stress relief, community building, and adventure.
Since 2018, Beyond Boundaries has worked with McShin Foundation to offer adventures like climbing, rafting, and fishing to individuals in recovery. Thanks to our generous donors, we’re able to offer this programming to McShin at a dramatically reduced cost compared to what they would spend if they were to seek these trips out directly. As a result, the foundation is able to offer more trips to more people in recovery, more often.
Recently, we spoke with Monique Runge, the Peer Community, and Program Liason at McShin about the impact Beyond Boundaries has had on their organization.
“We typically rely on donations for our Wellness Programs, and partnering with Beyond Boundaries has allowed us to add 2 outings a month, which is huge,” says Runge.
These added adventures give individuals at McShin a chance to connect, experience new things, and channel some of their energy and fears into a tangible experience.
“The climbing trips are so important, we see so many of our participants become so emotional and really conquer some fears in real-time. They take those lessons back to their recovery and make those connections,” Runge says.
However, many participants can also have a lot of anxiety or doubt about participating in such intense activities. Remember back to your first climb, or rafting trip and you can easily see why. Emotions can run high and have the potential to boil over.
“The Beyond Boundaries crew is such a perfect fit for our community, their unique ability to work with people with disabilities, their patience, and their expertise in outdoor activities makes their programming some of the most popular activities that we offer,” explains Runge.
The effects of the adventures with Beyond Boundaries have a lasting impact too, according to Runge. “People in active addiction fall away from so much. Without the Beyond Boundaries program, their daily programming would be so monotonous. This partnership really makes what we’re doing so much brighter.”
At the end of the day, our mission is to make sure that everyone has a good time and is able to take their adventure as far as they’re willing to.
“The participants love it. A lot of people cry. It’s a big deal to accomplish these feats and they take it as an analogy for their journey in the program,” says Runge.
Without our donors and volunteers, we wouldn’t be able to make such a lasting impact on so many lives. Want to get involved?