Megan McIlroy, The Examiner
2006-10-23 09:00:00.0
Current rank: Not ranked

BALTIMORE -

Standing proudly in a gold-colored suit, James Singletary doesn’t look like a man who was addicted to drugs for 32 years.

He adjusts his paisley pocket square and clutches a Bible as his friends give him high-fives and hugs.

They are congratulating him for graduating from the Helping Up Mission, a drug treatment program.

“All I knew was getting high and hustling” said Singletary, 45, of his days as an addict. “When I got to Helping Up Mission, I had to learn there were some changes to be made.”

Singletary is one of 75 men who graduated Sunday from the yearlong residential drug treatment program. Started in 1885, the nondenominational faith-based organization on East Baltimore Street in the city is one of Baltimore’s oldest nonprofits. Most of the men were homeless and addicted to drugs.

As residents, they underwent spiritual classes, 12-step meetings, one-on-one counseling, general equivalency diploma preparation, career counseling and job placement, program administrator Thomas Bond said.

This year, 91 percent of the graduates have jobs.

Gov. Robert Ehrlich praised the Helping Up Mission at the graduation ceremony Sunday, at Martin’s West banquet hall in Baltimore County.

“Anybody — the state, nonprofits — can feed and clothe. It’s what happens in this place underneath the skin that makes these men come together.”

Ehrlich said the Helping Up Mission shows the benefit of faith-based initiatives.

“The separation of church and state was made up. We should never indulge that notion. I use Helping up Mission as an example of how faith-based initiatives work.” he said.

The state recently gave the program a $3.6 million grant, said Robert Gehman, the executive director of the Helping Up Mission.

Jubilant graduates posed for photographs, pumped their fists in the air and hugged family members after the ceremony.

Singletary is now a professional chef. He works at Catholic charities and leads a Bible study group every Friday night.

“It feels wonderful to complete something,” he said. “I don’t want to go back to where I was.”

Dustin Dietz, 24, kicked his heroin addiction after a year with the program. He now works for a Baltimore Gas & Electric contractor and is expecting his second child.

“I didn’t know how in a year I could get my house, my family, my daughter back,” he said. “God did so much for me.”

mmcilroy@baltimoreexaminer.com