Where There's A Will Fund

06/25/2025

One man's story of descending into the open-air drug world of Kensington in Philadelphia, and of climbing back out.

10/17/2024

It's now TWELVE years. There has not been enough change despite the hard work of many advocates. Our work and our commitment remain steadfast. We appreciate all the support we've gotten from friends over the years. We WILL prevail.
Twelve years ago, October 16th was sunny and bright in New York City. I drove my son, William, to a downtown hospital. He had his bag packed, including two books to read. Frustrated and tiring from his struggle with addiction, he wanted to be admitted to the hospital’s inpatient detox unit. He had both he**in and benzodiazepines in his system, a fact he willingly shared with intake staff. It took a very short time (under an hour) for his insurers, Emblem Health, and their subsidiary, Value Options, to deny him the treatment he sought saying it was “not medically necessary.” He knew what he needed. Despondent upon bring refused treatment, he left the hospital, came back uptown and overdosed in a Starbuck’s bathroom. He was taken to an ER, “treated”, then released the same day. He returned home early that evening, bag and books in hand. We never knew a thing about the details of his day until we reviewed medical records after his death. Four days later he overdosed again – this time it would eventually prove fatal, but not before six weeks of hospitalization. Some days get gloomy, no matter how bright the sky. Time has not helped heal this wound. So begins what I call “The Season of Gloom”: the dates marking his treatment denial, his overdose, his birthday, and his death in our arms on December 2nd.

10/02/2024

Go here to listen and view my podcast with Jessica Hope about her new memoir First In The Family - A Story of Survival, Recovery, and the American Dream. It's well worth your time.

Jessica Hoppe, author of the newly released memoir FIRST IN THE FAMILY – A Story of Survival, Recovery, and The American Dream. Jessica is a Honduran Ecuador...

10/01/2024

Join me for another Kingfisher Project interview TONIGHT, October 1st at 6:00 EDT on the Local Edition on WJFF 90.5 FM, Radio Catskill. You can also listen via live stream at https://wjffradio.org.

My guest will be Jessica Hoppe, author of the newly released memoir FIRST IN THE FAMILY – A Story of Survival, Recovery, and The American Dream. Jessica is a Honduran Ecuadorian writer based in New York City. She has been featured on ABC News and HBOMax Pa’lante! and her work has appeared in the Latino Book Review, The New York Times, Vogue, Paper Magazine, and elsewhere. Jessica is a board member of Time of Butterflies, a non-profit supporting families through domestic abuse recovery, and an organizer with the Central American Writer’s group.

Previous Kingfisher guest Carl Erik Fisher, MD writes: “FIRST IN THE FAMILY sings with love and shouts with rage, offering an uplifting account of resilience and recovery even while calling out the seductive dangers of the American Dream. Jessica Hoppe has crafted an important, pathbreaking contribution by distilling the historical stakes of the addiction crisis while simultaneously presenting a wrenching and unique personal narrative. It’s an insightful chronicle of the burdens of specialness, the weight of intergenerational trauma, and the stigma of addiction. In the end, it’s an inspiring and essential message that there are numerous and diverse pathways of recovery.”

TONIGHT at 6:00 doesn’t work for you? Or you just want to learn more? Go to wjffradio.org any time after we broadcast and catch an extended conversation as a PODCAST located under The Kingfisher Project. You won’t want to miss what Jessica has to say.