What is F.A.I.R?

Focused on Youth and

Recovery

     Families and Adolescents in Recovery (FAIR), Schaumburg, Ill.,  is an intensive outpatient and aftercare treatment program serving teens age 13 to 19 and their families across the Chicago area.

     We are at our best when troubled teens are at their worst. We get them clean and sober. We include and counsel their families. And we appropriately take on the toughest cases, including runaways, drug addicts, binge drinkers and early alcoholics. Many of our young patients also suffer from anger management or grief issues and dualdiagnoses such as depression or bipolar disorder.

       We believe that a healthy lifestyle free from these addictions and self harming behaviors is the foundation of a healthy community and a well-educated, productive society.

       FAIR’s unique, inter-disciplinary outpatient treatment is both demanding and effective. Providing an ongoing mix of individual, family, group and peer therapy and education, our program empowers patients and their families with the communication skills and the psychosocial tools essential to long-term recovery.

      The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) reports that intensive outpatient treatment programs like FAIR can effectively decrease drug and alcohol use while also improving school performance and psychological adjustment Clinical studies and the NIDA also indicate that the longer the treatment, the better the outcome. FAIR treatment can last eight months or more, with graduates and their parents then coming back to serve as volunteers, growing honesty, integrity and health in Chicago youth and families.

Why a Foundation?

Why Now?

     Families across Chicagoland face growing financial and health insurance challenges. Meanwhile, family support and structure deteriorates, teens face isolation in a busy and digital world, and incidents of risky, self-harming behavior, even suicide among teens, grows.

     For many of these families, the life-affirming, family-restoring treatment at FAIR is increasingly out of financial reach.

     In response, a team of FAIR parents and others in the FAIR community recently formed the FAIR Foundation. It is our mission to garner private and community funding so that no family in need will ever be turned away from treatment for financial reasons.

FAIR in the Community

      In addition to its treatment work, FAIR has been a vital part of surrounding communities, providing substance abuse prevention education through our recovering volunteers in service to local highschools, churches and hospitals. Recovering teens and parents who live FAIR’s philosophy and mission are our best testimony to  FAIR’s life-changing work.

Three Ways to Give

      Help new patients and families who cannot afford treatment without your support:

Serenity Sponsor.

     Your gift will directly reduce or eliminate FAIR treatment fees for new patients and their families who face financial or health insurance hardship.

Courage to Change Sponsor.

      Arrange an ongoing monthly donation to provide consistent financial assistance to new and enrolled FAIR families facing financial and health insurance hardship.

Wisdom Sponsor.

      Underwrite the full treatment and recovery program of a patient and family with your corporate or personal donation of $20,000 or more.

FAIR: A Legacy of Service to Families in Crisis

        FAIR was established as an independent behavioral health program in 2000 following a 5-year association with Forest Hospital. Since our inception, Executive Director John McGuiness, partner Dr. Tracy Lewis-Todd, Psy.D., and our growing clinical team have remained deeply committed to serving all patients in need of treatment, regardless of their ability to pay. In fact, FAIR is among the few regional treatment programs that accepts a full 20 percent of our patients on a pro-bono basis

     Since 2000, the number of adolescents and families with no resources to pay for treatment has increased steadily, most markedly in the last year. In response to these families in crisis, we have established the FAIR Foundation.

Through your support of the FAIR Foundation, we will be able to expand care to more families, providing much-needed treatment to those of all socio-economic, cultural, ethnic and religious backgrounds in our community.

Our common goal: to equip families and youth with the psychological, emotional and behavioral skills to win the struggle with substance abuse and thrive as healthy, productive members of our community – free from addictions and other risky, self-harming behaviors.