Residential Program

Our primary treatment program is located in our award-winning 31-bed, residential facility designed to provide a healthy, safe and supportive environment for individuals whose needs are best addressed in a residential treatment setting. The residential program combines a daily way of life practiced in supportive recovery with the expertise and experience of professional counselors and volunteers. Days are structured with workshops, support groups, basic living skills as well as recreational opportunities.

After care:
After transitioning out of the core residential program all graduates are required to attend three to six months of aftercare before graduation. This consists of one aftercare group per week as well as on-going attendance in self-help meetings. Also Stepping Stone has an active Alumni Association which former program participants are encouraged to utilize and an opportunity for on-going fellowship, support and service.

The next step in the admission process is to attend the orientation group on Tuesdays at 10:00 a.m.

CALIFORNIA AMERICAN INDIAN RECOVERY SERVICES (CAIRS):
The CAIRS program is substance abuse treatment and recovery support service program administered by the California Rural Indian Health Board (CRIHB) in Sacramento and funded through a grant by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services (SAMHSA). This program provides funding for eligible American Indian/Alaska Native individuals seeking alcohol and substance abuse treatment.

Support Services Program

The Support Services Program was implemented in 1996 to provide alcohol and drug recovery services to people living with HIV/AIDS in the North, Central, Southeast, East and South Bay regions of San Diego County. In order to intervene and facilitate the recovery process it is essential to address HIV/AIDS and substance use and abuse simultaneously. We have two HIV Prevention Programs, one targeting issues relating to IDU populations and another targeting MSM communities.

HIV/AIDS and Sobriety Support Groups
Weekly groups that focus on issues facing the client related to HIV/AIDS and addiction i.e. remaining abstinent, medical concerns, developing social skills and incorporating clean and sober social events into recovery planning.

Alcohol and Drug Education
Groups and individual counseling sessions that focus on the disease concept of addiction, how alcohol and drugs effect the immune system, information on specific drugs of choice, and consequences of alcohol and drug abuse.

HIV/AIDS In-Service Training
A service that provides HIV/AIDS and addiction educational training to health care providers, case managers and recovery staff. Stepping Stone takes pride in the many years of service in the AIDS and addiction field and wishes to pass this experience on to other health care providers.

AIDS & Addiction Speakers Bureau
A service that provides speakers that are successfully living with HIV/AIDS and addiction who share their experience, strength and hope to agencies and individuals throughout San Diego County. All Programs have a special emphasis on communities that have been historically under served (i.e. communities of color). The various support groups, education groups and Prevention Programs focus on specific issues relating to HIV/Aids Prevention and substance abuse reduction as a first step in improving the individual's overall health.

Program Interventions

The Discovering Sexual Health Program in recovery is an educational intervention designed to help Stepping Stone participants evaluate their own risk of drug relapse due to un addressed high risk sexual behaviors and develop safer, low risk sexual behaviors that will not likely contribute to drug or alcohol relapse. These interventions were introduced because of our observations that barriers in our community were preventing participants and community members from either accessing or fully benefiting from Stepping Stone's array of services. The program has an evaluation component that allows Stepping Stone to measure the outcomes and determine the successes and needed improvements of the programs.

In 2009, with funding from the Drug Policy Alliance's Advocacy Grants Program and help from an outside consultant, Stepping Stone of San Diego staff created and field-tested and advocacy training curriculum for clients called Stepping Up. The curriculum's objectives are to expose clients to organizations seeking to change societal attitudes and to "integrate concepts of self and community empowerment and advocacy into all services for clients at Stepping Stone".

The rationale for Stepping Up training states:
Empowerment and self-advocacy are goals of behavioral health interventions. Stepping Up's facilitating principles including that individuals: have power; are responsible; have some degree of autonomy; can take initiative; and can make choices to provide a base for improved consciousness about one's physical and emotional health. Empowerment and advocacy, however, do not occur in a vacuum. Individuals are empowered and advocate in a social context. That context can enhance or detract from an individual's well-being.

The need to advocate and become empowered arises from the inequities of our social and discrimination that these inequities engender. Thus, self-advocacy connects directly to efforts to change society and reduce the marginalization of our clients due to their status as gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual, HIV+, and former drug user, and former drug users. Therefore, the Stepping Up curriculum also includes information about societal change and the importance of social justice activism.

As defined at Stepping Up, "Self-advocacy is standing up for yourself, and whether you are trying to change the world or your own life, advocacy means finding your voice. If you are asking for something, you need to be clear about what it is and why you want it."

Seeking additional services, applying for employment and taking care of one's health all require the ability to assert oneself. Stepping Up participants are taught six steps to self-advocacy.