Personal interest
By Corey Taule • ctaule@postregister.com
Joe Martinez and John and Joyce Kulp aren’t waiting around for the government to take care of Idaho Falls’ problem with methamphetamine. They’re doing what they can without asking the taxpayers for a dime.
The Kulps operate A Refuge Ministries, a small, faith-based pseudo treatment facility located in Idaho Falls. The best analogy to ARM is drug court, where patients are forced to follow strict guidelines and attain and maintain employment.
ARM was founded five years ago. The goal, John Kulp said, is to help anyone down and out. They could be addicted to drugs of alcohol, a single mother with nowhere to go, or even someone with a spending problem. But Martinez said most of the women who go through what is a year-and-a-half to two-year program are drug addicts.
Space is limited. Seven small one-bedroom apartments are available to women who fill out a 10-page application and commit to a program that includes strict curfews, twice-weekly prayer meetings, church attendance and budget sessions. Men are not allowed on the premises. Romantic relationships are prohibited. Participants pay what they can, from $35 to $180 a month. The Kulps pay the bills by renting space in a trailer park they own.
Resident Christina Mallow said ARM’s strict rules have worked for her. She’s also going through drug court for a second time and the 27-year-old mother of three hopes that combination helps her kick a meth addiction that began nine years ago.
Martinez said less than 20 percent of ARM’s volunteer participants make it all the way through the program. Those who do have learned to cope with the pressures that led them to addiction in the first place.
“You can live in freedom,” Martinez said. “You can overcome.”
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