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Celebrating Rita Sullivan Sunday Apr 2, 2017 at 12:01 AM By Peter Sage For 39 years Rita Sullivan has devoted herself to helping people on the margins of society, assisting them in joining the mainstream of the community and in becoming better parents and citizens. She took OnTrack from a small substance abuse treatment agency with fewer than 10 staff in 1979 to a two-county service provider with more than 160 employees, offering outpatient and inpatient services. It offered child/parent bonding, mental health, domestic violence services for both perpetrators and victims, gambling treatment, counseling, residential treatment for adolescents, job search services and GED, three treatment courts, and more. She developed the HOME Program, the first residential substance abuse treatment program in the state that took young children into care with their mothers. She also developed the DADS program offering similar services to fathers and their children. Groups from other counties and states continually toured OnTrack facilities and determined to replicate them where possible. Her goal has always been to preserve the family. She was prescient in knowing that placing children in foster care would only exacerbate existing bonding and attachment problems. Current research has shown how far ahead Sullivan was, because although some children need to be in foster care, the vast majority are returned to their biological families and through these programs can avoid the trauma and associated consequences of out-of-home placements. In supervised housing, families are able to remain together and build a stronger bond while in recovery from addiction. With Sen. Alan Bates, she transformed these statewide and nationally recognized programs into state law so they would follow OnTrack's example. Her participation on numerous boards, her willingness to help community partners, her inclusion of other agencies in grants all show her collaborative vision. OnTrack's strong relationships with partners in the community, including schools, DHS, Jackson County Mental Health, police departments, corrections and others made sure that the universal concerns regarding drug and alcohol abuse were understood and embedded in services to families. Over the past 39 years, Sullivan has developed more than 200 affordable housing units for tenants who cannot meet regular tenancy requirements, giving them a chance to redeem themselves by building a successful record as tenants. Her third tax credit project is currently under construction, and took years to bring to fruition. The goal is a unique vision, allowing young families and seniors to assist each other, keeping seniors at home as they age, and allowing them to teach the next generation the lessons of a lifetime. She holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology and is a licensed marriage and family therapist and a certified alcohol and drug counselor III, among other qualifications. She was honored with a statewide award for Woman of the Year, and was recognized by the Jackson County Board of Commissioners as Citizen of the Year. We stand together in gratitude and admiration of Sullivan’s lasting impact and hope she continues to assist the community. She is respected statewide for her acumen and determination to help people change themselves, and thereby change the community. Southern Oregon is a better place because of OnTrack. Our community still needs OnTrack and we hope the community will maintain and support this resource. — Peter Sage of Medford is a retired financial adviser. This opinion was also signed by Lindsay Berryman, Jim Berryman, Sue Kupillas, William Thorndike, John Ferris, Scott Perry, Debra Lee, Jerry Evans and Linda Evans.