Debbie Moak just hung up the phone, coaching and providing support to a mother struggling with her 18-year-old’s son’s drug abuse.
She knows how this mother feels. Too well.
Moak and her husband Steve never thought their son, Steve Jr., would be one of “those” kids. In high school, he was the vice president of his class, held the state track record, was on the basketball team, and had great grades and a solid group of friends. The Moaks’ hosted weekly Young Life meetings.
“On paper, our son was everything we wanted our son to be,” Moak recalls. “The resume was pretty impressive. At the time, that’s all I knew.”
What she and her husband did not know was that their son had an emerging substance abuse problem. The origin: A high school student government trip to Coronado Island when a beautiful senior cheerleader asked freshman Steve Jr. if he wanted to smoke a joint with her.
Years later, as a 20-year-old student at the University of Colorado Boulder, in a moment of clarity, he was asking for help. The Moaks’ already knew something was going on and planned to take advantage of that moment when it happened. They had a rehabilitation place selected, flew him back to Phoenix, and met him at the airport with a packed bag.
After getting him help, they wanted to do the same for other parents. They felt that just openly sharing their experiences would be a benefit.
In 2000, Debbie and Steve founded notMYkid, a nonprofit that provides a range of lifesaving programs, support, resources, and education to families in this battle. The organization also provides prevention and early intervention programming for middle school and high school students. The organization is on track to expand behavioral health support, and will open an outpatient treatment program for youth and their families this fall.
notMYkid is celebrating its 20th year of service this year, and has served more than 2 million individuals through its peer-based programs. Even in the midst of a pandemic, they are pivoting to provide online programs and prioritize mental health and substance use disorder prevention programs that reach schools, families, and the community at large.
A year after entering treatment, Steve Jr. became the organization’s first peer educator, a paid position that he worked for free. Today, at 41, he owns a company that produces engagement software that supports people in recovery.
“I’m so proud of him. If you think about having an entire organization founded upon your high school and college years and your behavior… he shouldered that responsibility,” Moak says.
Steve Jr. is among the more than 100,000 Arizona youths a year that have benefitted from notMYkid (NotMYKid.org) since its inception.
Ministers, doctors, and heads of nonprofits are among those who came to notMYkid at their most vulnerable. One is active in national healthcare reform, and was the first recipient of a notMYkid college scholarship. He graduated and gave the organization $10,000 to fund a scholarship for someone else.
“You take these kids and pour so much love into each of them. And they were able to impact tens of thousands of other kids,” Moak says. “Those are the untold stories that need to be told.”