When Carmen Capozzi founded Sage’s Army in 2012, his phone rang off the hook every day.

“From the day we started, it was my (phone) number,” Capozzi said. “We weren’t funded then — it was just volunteers.”

After the death of his son, Sage, from a heroin overdose, Capozzi felt compelled to create the Hempfield-based recovery organization.

Over the next several years, as executive director, Capozzi expanded the phone program into a 24-hour helpline. It now has its headquarters at 6044 Route 30.

It was first staffed by volunteers, and later by employees of Sage’s Army. The helpline received about 7,000 calls last year and was able to help 217 people get into treatment.

The phone line is only one of many recovery-related services offered by Sage’s Army, whose staff was spotlighted at an open house Wednesday.

Members of the community, including several county officials, came to hear from organizers and experts and share their stories about the work Sage’s Army does and plans to do in the future.

“Where I’m hoping the future is more connections to recovery support services,” Capozzi said. “The future, I hope, is that we see more support and we see more recovery community organizations. We need them everywhere.”

Rob Hamilton, director of Westmoreland County Human Services, and Tim Phillips, director of the county’s Department of Community Relations and Prevention, emphasized the help that Sage’s Army and other recovery community organizations, or RCOs, can provide. Both noted their own past experiences with substance use and how recovery helped them.

“It’s essential that we continue to have RCOs like this situated around Westmoreland County,” Hamilton said. “While I might not be a recipient of Sage’s Army that provided me my care, it was organizations like and related to Sage’s Army that helped provide my care, and have driven me to be who I am today.”

“Back in those days, recovery wasn’t really visible, it wasn’t talked about. I didn’t know anything about recovery then,” Phillips said. “When I look here and see the things that we’ve done, it’s been tremendous.

“We’ve come leaps and bounds since those old days.”

Evolution of services

As drug and substance use problems in the region have changed over time, so too has Sage’s Army, director of operations Janice Olson said.

Heroin has given way to other drugs, such as fentanyl and xylazine, and alcohol use has persisted as a problem for many.

Sage’s Army receives and distributes testing strips for xylazine, Olson said.

“Fentanyl was not on the streets (12 years ago),” Olson said. “Since I have been working in the drug and alcohol field for eight years, heroin is moving out and fentanyl is moving in, xylazine is moving in. Alcohol is definitely becoming big. That’s the silent killer people don’t want to talk about.”

Some people who started with opiate use move into alcohol use, Olson said. She hopes for more funding streams in the region to address alcoholism recovery.

“People don’t recognize the pathways that alcohol and opiates hit. It hits the same brain receptors,” Olson said. “It’s the same euphoric feeling that’s going on in the brain.”

Sage’s Army has worked to keep up with the shifting environment. The group is coordinating with local EMS providers and hospitals to fill gaps in recovery care.

“People are slipping through the cracks in our hospitals right now; 100%, we’re hearing that a lot,” Olson said.

The organization is working to connect patients who go into the hospital for substance use with recovery services once they are discharged, even if they are cleared as having no physical injuries.

The Sage’s Army location on Route 30 also hosts events and meetings for alcohol, drug and gambling recovery groups.

The road ahead

Sage’s Army is looking ahead to further program expansion, Olson said.

The group kicked off a “street team” initiative in March that heads out monthly to help people living in area homeless encampments and provide them with supplies. The team also conducts outreach to encourage local businesses to carry Narcan.

“Once a month, we are trying to get different areas of Westmoreland County,” Olson said. “We hope to, here, when the winter weather gets a little bit better, to do it more than just once a month.”

The organization is coordinating with the Stage AE music venue in Pittsburgh for a number of upcoming concerts to manage a “Sober Section” in the audience, where mocktails without alcohol will be served and resources and staff from Sage’s Army will be present for anyone who needs assistance.

“What was cool is, when we contacted them, it was great timing. They said they have some bands that asked if they had a sober section,” Capozzi said.

The team also has been running a transportation service with a van and coordinator who can take people to and from the center, meetings, doctors’ appointments, food banks, clinics and more, Olson said.

The van has been providing about 100 free rides monthly.

“We are filling that gap,” she said. “We recognize it’s a barrier that you cannot get to your next appointment to receive your medication that is needed to assist your recovery. We are filling that and getting them there.”

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