Former addict Felicia Buzard of Cherry Hill, left, credits Colleen Snow, right, a Project SAVE advocate, with guiding her to a path away from opioid addiction and an improved life.
When Felicia Buzard showed up in Pennsauken municipal court five years ago with a DUI violation and an addiction to opioids, she had no clue what to expect.
Buzard did not end up entangled in the judicial system.
Instead, she was introduced by the court to Colleen Snow, a woman sitting in the courtroom, and Buzard began a path to kicking the habit and improving her life.
The court allowed Buzard, now 35, to avoid punishment and turn herself over to Camden County Project SAVE, which keeps addicts from the traditional route after an arrest and instead focuses on helping them to become former addicts and move on with their lives.
Snow, who is assistant director for the Camden County Office of Mental Health and Addiction, became Buzard’s Project SAVE advocate and provided guidance.
Today, Buzard, a Cherry Hill resident with a 6-year-old daughter, works full-time for Camden County’s meal program for senior citizens and is studying social work in college.
"I am coming up on five years clean, and it wouldn’t be possible without Project SAVE," she told politicians, government officials and the media on Thursday in Audubon Municipal Court at a celebration of 10,141 referrals as of last month through the system, which debuted in 2019.
Buzard experimented with drugs in her teens and later began using them more heavily when partying on weekends. Opioids then got what seemed to be an unbreakable grip on her.
"It was no longer a want. It was I need this," she said in an interview.
Greg Audino, deputy section chief for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office, said the program is a "hope for a better life."
Greg Audino, deputy section chief for the Camden County Prosecutor's Office, said the natural tendency in law enforcement is to prosecute those who commit crimes, but that may not stop an addict from continuing the cycle of property crimes to find money for the habit.
The voluntary Project SAVE program puts jail on hold and works to help the individual "break free from the shackles of addiction and hope for a better life," Audino said.
"People get their lives back and there is no price that you can put on that," he told the group.
Since 2019, 3,449 people have been enrolled in the Project SAVE program. They grew from police and court staff referrals and self-referrals. About 62% of the individuals were greeted in court by a Project SAVE advocate like Snow – a percentage that last year increased to more than 87%, according to county statistics.
Last year, the county added mental health specialists to serve as "navigators" because addiction and mental health issues are so often intertwined, Snow said.
SEEKING HELP: Camden County residents can reach Project SAVE by calling the county Office of Mental Health and Addiction at (856) 374-6361. Those not in the county can call (844) 732-2465, a state-sponsored help line.
The county got the idea from a successful similar program in Gloucester Township and adapted it for other municipal courts in the county, said county commission Director Louis Cappelli Jr.
U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross called the county's program an off-ramp on the "highway to hell" of addiction. From left, Audubon Mayor Rob Jakubowski and Camden County Commission Director Louis Cappelli Jr. look on.
U.S. Rep. Donald Norcross, who represents Camden County in Congress, said addiction is "a person’s highway to hell."
The Project SAVE program allows them to choose an off-ramp on that highway and work to overcome the addiction and get back on track, Norcross said.
When Project SAVE advocate Snow offered Buzard that off-ramp to rehab, Buzard said she jumped at the chance.
Buzard said that, as an addict, she was "completely frozen" and not making decisions on her own.
