Niston Franco, CEO of Eugenia Center, stands outside the facility in Chehalis on Feb. 13, 2019.
It was a winding path that led Niston Franco to where he is now, but ask him and he’ll say he doesn’t believe in luck. Rather, he believes in preparing yourself for opportunity, so when it comes knocking, you’re ready to answer.
Franco has been the CEO of the nonprofit Eugenia Center based in Chehalis since 2011. In that time, the organization has seen exponential growth; Franco was one of four employees when he started back in 2005, and now is one of 44.
But Franco didn’t move to Washington from his home nation of Colombia keen on a career in treating chemical dependency. Rather, he was on a path to become a Catholic priest. He came to the U.S. in 1999, and began to study at the Diocese of Yakima and at a seminary in Oregon.
Even as a kid, he said, he had a fascination with the Pacific Northwest, saying that he would read about its natural qualities and Seattle and its history.
“The mountains, the trees — the pine trees — and the rivers and lakes,” he said.
He decided that the church wasn’t the path for him, and left that course. He was married in 2002, and sought to gain some much needed work experience. For six months, Franco said, he struggled to land a job. Then he happened on a position at Sea Mar in Tumwater, as a chemical dependency professional.
He started out as a volunteer, and took part in some of the organization’s events. With a foot in the door, he eventually landed a job as a counselor in training. A year and a half down the road, he was a manager.
Not too shabby, he said, for someone who struggled learning English as he was growing up. His go-to subjects tended more toward history, philosophy and sociology. He would stick with Sea Mar until 2008, but in the years in between, he found part-time employment with other agencies. One of those part-time jobs was with the Eugenia Center. He landed that job in 2005.
He became full-time with Eugenia Center in 2008, when the agency submitted a proposal to work with Lewis County Drug Court. Another part-time position introduced Franco to Thurston County’s drug court system, and he said he fell in love with it — the way it offered rehabilitation through means more effective to individuals suffering with addiction or mental health issues than incarceration.
“I strongly believe that if somebody is a danger to society, there are certain things that have to take place to keep everybody else safe, but when those charges are related to a mental health condition or a substance use disorder — chemical dependency issue — then we should be going from punishment to an intervention model where we can intervene. If there is jail time that needs to happen, I don’t want to change the legal system … but in that process how do we reform this individual? How do we introduce this individual into being rehabilitated?” he said.
Franco developed a stance toward treatment he described as progressive — maybe more progressive than the sensibilities of others working closely with the local criminal justice system, he said. Franco described a desire for a system that moved further from punitive responses to drug use, and more like that of an intervention. He spoke favorably of medical assisted treatment, like Vivitrol and Suboxone treatment. He said someday he’d like to see a needle exchange program in the area.
By late 2008, the Eugenia Center began to work with Lewis County’s drug court, and has been providing counseling and case management for drug court ever since.
In 2017, The Chronicle reported 6 percent of Lewis County’s Drug Court graduates would likely re-offend within 18 months of graduation, according to statistics from the Department of Social and Health Services. The statewide average was 20 percent.
Franco became CEO of Eugenia Center in 2011 — which at the time had six employees. Over the years, that number would grow to 44, with most of the growth occurring between 2016 to 2019, Franco said. He credits that partly to the ability to apply for more grants and seek sure financial footing.
Today, Eugenia Center offers individual and group counseling on drug and alcohol abuse, mental health services and transportation for their clients. They opened a clinic in Mossyrock.
Franco said he’s an advocate of meeting the person where they’re at, and for the clinic to be as approachable as possible.
“The last thing we want to do is create more barriers, because there’s a lot of barriers and obstacles for people to ask for help, and asking for help when you have a problem with drinking and using is not easy,” he said.
Often, he’ll be approached by individuals who sought treatment successfully, and are now interested in becoming counselors. He said that sort of experience can help a counselor be more relatable to their clients, as long as the person seeks the proper education and licensing..
As for Franco, it’s encouraging when someone approaches him and says he played a part in them kicking a deadly habit. He’s been at it long enough that he might not even remember the person right away, but conversation will often jog his memory, as they tell him the positive track their life has taken since.
“You might not change the whole world, but it’s good to know that you touch lives every day, and that you’re able to be a part of the solution,” he said.
