Alumni Program

Foundry Treatment Center Steamboat offers an active and engaging alumni program that supports recovery-supportive lifestyles, encourages client and family connection, and sponsors regular activities.

Completing treatment and entering recovery is a powerful and affirmative first step toward lasting recovery. Remaining connected to one's treatment organization and other people in various stages of recovery from substance use and co-occurring mental health disorders can make a vital difference to remaining in recovery. Just as community-based support groups fulfill crucial roles for recovering individuals and family members, alumni programs also provide relationships, curriculum, and events that keep treatment resources close at hand and reinforce the lessons of sustaining recovery and well-being.

Foundry Treatment Center Steamboat offers free alumni programming for all clients completing its men's residential program and intensive outpatient program. Alumni and their family members are encouraged to participate in the program's regular meetings, enjoyable activities, and community events. In fact, two out of three Foundry Steamboat clients completing treatment immediately begin alumni program participation.

Foundry Steamboat Alumni Coordinator Alexander Arthur specializes in building bridges of meaning and support between our alumni community and our program. “Gender-responsive men’s programming is essential. Men who have experienced trauma can feel cut off from their emotions; they may feel deeply isolated and defensive and have a very hard time forming authentic relationships with others. This affects the overall quality of life, makes it hard to maintain marriages and families, and can easily cause men to return to self-medicating emotional pain with substances. Processing trauma and learning the value of relationships, recreation, and simply conversing with other men is central to our programming,” says Arthur. “A big part of our alumni program is about simply getting men to connect and have the ability to occasionally get things off their chests. We all need to do that from time to time, but it can be especially important for men in recovery.”

Foundry Steamboat’s residential treatment program for men provides Trauma-Integrated Care and emphasizes the importance of establishing support networks outside the family system. Finding friends with which to enjoy recreation or simply someone to talk to about life experiences while supporting a recovery-supportive lifestyle can make a crucial difference. “It can be hard for people who have not experienced substance use disorders, treatment, and recovery to relate fully. Connecting to others who have shared these experiences can make you feel less alone and truly understood.”

“Our alumni are from Colorado and around the country. Regardless of how close you may live to our program or other alums, life is busy, and it can be hard to take time away from your family, obligations, and career to attend alumni events. This is why we want to develop a diversified program that makes it as easy as possible for our alumni to communicate or attend events. We also want to encourage family participation at in-person events for those able to attend. Seeing your fellow alumnus with their family members can be truly inspiring and broadens your circle of potential friends and supporters. This experience can be just as positive for clients' partners, siblings, parents, and children, who get to see the progress that others are making in recovery and share their experiences. Alumni can be about even more than supporting the identified client,” says Arthur.
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Alexander is already working with his Foundry Steamboat teammates — some of whom are former colleagues — developing events and establishing connections on the front range and beyond. With time, Alexander hopes to ensure that every current and past Foundry Steamboat client has direct access to its supportive community, that clients are excited to engage in alumni programming before being discharged, and that alums in Colorado and around the country feel surrounded by fellowship and support.

Sign Up to Receive Alumni Program Communications and Receive Zoom Information!

Complete this form to tell the Foundry Steamboat Alumni Team that you would like to be included in alumni program email communications and be invited to events and other alumni opportunities.