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San Diego ARC
The San Diego Adult Rehabilitation Center received the 1998 Salvation Army National Social Services Award for Program Excellence and Achievement, presented during the National Social Services Conference in Dallas, Tex., recently.
The center was chosen for this award from among four programs representing the U.S. Territories, each honored for having performed exceptionally, proven effective, achieved excellence and being a model of and for the Army’s social service ministry.
The San Diego center was cited for major program innovations: it was the first in the nation to create a six-month residential program; the first to add transitional housing, and to implement an effective re-entry program; and among the first to add a women’s rehabilitation component. The center has placed a high emphasis on the counseling program and assembled a well-trained and professional staff under the leadership of Dr. Ed Lataille, Director of Rehabilitation Services.
The center has exceptional linkages to the San Diego Community, partnering with the UCSD School of Medicine to provide health care to its beneficiaries and with other local colleges and universities, including the U.S. Navy School of Health Sciences, to provide internships for training of alcohol and drug counselors. An extensive array of volunteers and relationships with other community organizations further enhance the center’s impact throughout San Diego County.
The center has recently entered into discussion with the San Diego Drug Court to explore an outpatient alternative to incarceration, and is working with the division in putting together components of a demonstration program to move welfare recipients into employment.
Dr. Lataille represented the center staff, including acting center administrator, Major Joe Viola (R), in receiving the award, presented by Colonel John Bate, national chief secretary. Lataille was accompanied on the platform by Major Dan Starrett, ARC Commander, Mr. Conrad Watson, director of program for the ARC Command, and Mr. Gordon Bingham, territorial social services secretary. Also present at the awards banquet was Lt. Colonel Gladys Bodine, who now serves with her husband, Lt. Colonel Robert Bodine in the leadership of the ARC Command of the Central Territory. The Bodines, along with Lataille, were major contributors to the development of the San Diego ARC during their time as center administrators.
