Eternal Buzz Community

Eternal Buzz Community partners with local communities to prevent drug addiction and overdose by enabling recovery, rehabilitation, and re-entry into society for those struggling with addiction. EBC supports individuals and their families by promoting holistic wellness programs, engaging creative arts for recovery, and offering hospitality and generosity during the healing process.

Seeking beauty rather than institutionalism, we establish creative, beautiful, and safe social spaces in non-clinical settings that cultivate sober living, recreation, and joy. Our curriculum provides life and vocational skills training within a healthy spiritually supportive context. We help individuals find employment in an atmosphere that aligns with their recovery and reintegration into the community, either at Eternal Buzz Café or other local businesses.

The Eternal Buzz Community (EBC) originated when Vito and Rachel LoCascio provided assistance to those impacted by the opioid epidemic while pastoring The Orchard Church in DuPage. A young woman addicted to heroin and trapped in a cycle of prostitution and abuse met the LoCascios shortly after being removed from a halfway house for failing a drug test. They invited her to their church, where she found transformative support from the spiritual community. This experience set her on the path to victory over her substance use disorder, further aided by the LoCascios hosting her in their home for six weeks. During this time, the young woman became part of their family and spiritual community. She continued to progress in her recovery by participating in the charitable programs of Serenity House Counseling Services, Inc., an Illinois not-for-profit corporation that operates a community-based alcohol and drug substance use disorder rehabilitation program. It was from this experience that the concept for EBC was born.

Over the past ten years, the LoCasios have been hosting a weekly spiritual recovery meeting for women at Serenity House. EBC has been providing volunteer services, recovery support groups, and serving meals at Serenity House. These services include weekly spiritual, abstinence-based group meetings, and financial support.

The LoCasios organized charitable and educational events at Serenity House, such as café nights, where patients receiving treatment from Serenity House were hosts. These events provided attendees from the church and community with education about the opioid epidemic and the needs of those affected. They also offered vocational development opportunities for Serenity House clients. The LoCascios actively facilitated and participated in the joint ministries of Serenity House and the church. Over thirteen years, they witnessed numerous stories of recovery and restoration in DuPage. During their journey of aiding those impacted by the opioid epidemic, they identified gaps in existing rehabilitative programs, leading to the formation of the Eternal Buzz Community to address these unmet needs.

For instance, many programs offer only mental health services and gathering spaces for individuals struggling with addiction, resulting in isolation from the larger community. As a result, those in recovery often struggle to reintegrate into sober spaces in terms of employment, recreation, and social support systems.

Due to a lack of education, resources, or involvement, substance use disorder is often misunderstood and stigmatized by those outside the recovery community. This demonstrates the need for community involvement in the recovery process and more organizational resources for education and volunteer opportunities. It also highlights the value of cooperation between healthcare professionals, community institutions, and local volunteers in combating substance abuse, the opioid crisis, and the hopelessness that often surrounds chronic substance use disorder. Therefore, community involvement must play a key role in reducing relapse by providing individuals with better support systems upon completing treatment or residence.

To address these gaps and attitudes, the LoCascios transitioned from vocational ministry at their church to focus on the Eternal Buzz Community's charitable programs, working alongside traditional recovery-oriented systems and providing specialized services. The LoCascios were joined by a team that together identified key features crucial to EBC's mission. These features include participation in a familial community, access to a secure home environment, creative outlets, and sober living social spaces, and life-giving principles that facilitate wellness and employment beyond monetary assistance. Each of these aspects addresses vital elements of recovery that are generally beyond the scope of traditional rehabilitative programs.

Through its charitable programs, the EBC aims to support those battling opioid use disorder by providing hope, family, hospitality, employment training, employment (the dignity of work), access to resources, spiritual wellness, and creative social and therapeutic outlets. These services humanize the often-insurmountable struggles beneath chronic substance use disorder and highlight the hope of restoration that occurs when a wide range of resources and community support are provided to those in need.

Our curriculum provides life and vocational skills training within a healthy spiritually supportive context. We participate in recovery oriented systems of care (ROSC) that educate community groups to work together: collaborating with inpatient and outpatient recovery programs to support sustained recovery.

We use the creative arts therapeutically (Art, Music, Movement, Drama). Seeking beauty rather than institutionalism: we establish creative, beautiful, and safe social spaces in non-clinical settings that cultivate sober- living, recreation, and joy.

Currently we do not have a facility, we operate in homes and in partnership with local recovery communities.

WE ENVISION a facility to provide affordable, long-term housing (especially for people with drug related felonies). We assist with finding employment in an atmosphere that aligns with recovery and reintegration into the community, either at Eternal Buzz Café or other local businesses.