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FOR THE YOUTH
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HELP started as a 24-hour telephone hotline in a small office on 17th and Locust Street. In less than a year HELP received
13,000 phone calls and moved to a 3 story building with a free clinic on its premises. As you can see by our many press
clippings, HELP was welcomed and respected from its beginning. It quickly became the model for similar programs across the
country. Older agencies did not have the trust of the youth, who were the ones most affected by addiction. HELP was the first
self help non profit agency in the U.S. to assist young people with physical and psychological drug addiction problems using peer counseling.
In 1971, HELP also assisted people fighting addiction, social injustice and related legal problems by starting the first Pre Indictment Probation Program, anywhere, with Senator Arlen Specter and Judge Sidney Hoffman. Called the ROR program (Release on your Own Recognizance), HELP volunteers sat in
Judge Hoffman's court ready to speak with first time drug use offenders who were at once referred to HELP by Judge Hoffman. This
relieved the severe case backlog and jail overcrowding with first time offenders. The 33 lawyers and 22 doctors who volunteered
with HELP ALL found the experience very rewarding.
The program is now called ARD (Accelerated Rehabilitative Disposition) and during the 34 years of its existence, approximately 125,000 have been in the program. They do NOT keep cumulative figures on the number of people placed in ARD. However, for the year 2004, there were approximately 4500. The pioneering spirit continues with its new concept called TeleHelp Therapy TM.
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