"new" andrew house location in weymouth

speaking with the residential clients

On Wednesday June 15, 2022 Ricky, Inc. visited the "new" location for Andrew House CSS (formerly in Stoughton).

Andrew House CSS provides clinical stabilization/step-down services for male clients leaving detox or in need of acute

(non medical) treatment.

Above Christopher Giacoppo who is a Ricky, Inc. Street Outreach Coordinator and his mother Bernadette spoke with the men at length and conducted a positive question and answer session before personally handing out 20 backpacks to the men.

appreciative staff

As always, we were greeted with a warm and grateful reception by the staff at Andrew House. They make us feel very welcome and make sure to show us how much they appreciate the backpacks that we provide for their clients and the books that we donated to their residents' library.

Pictured L-R; Christopher Giacoppo, Bernadette & Rich Giacoppo, Patty Sylvester Lead Counselor, Ozzy Ruiz Operations Director and Robert Hall Counselor.

new victory recovery home for men

Appreciative clients & staff

On Wednesday June 22, 2022 Ricky, inc. visited the New Victory program for men in Dorchester. This was our 2nd visit and we were warmly accepted again by all of the house.

Rich & Bernadette spoke with the men for about 30 minutes and did a show & tell with the contents of the backpacks that the men were receiving. Every resident received a filled backpack and showed their overwhelming thanks and gratitude. We were able to distribute 35 backpacks to all of the clients in the program.

The men were so receptive and compassionate that one man asked that we hold a moment of silence in honor of Ricky. It was a wonderful moment and something that we were very grateful for, especially since the man did not know Ricky.

Program Director Laura Holt was gracious and supportive, and her staff was very helpful to us during our stay. It was obvious how much Laura and her staff truly care about the men.

Pictured above is Bernadette & Rich, Laura Holt and her staff and several clients residing in this house. In the forefront is Richard, who is holding a photo of Ricky. Richard knew Ricky many years ago and was sad to hear about his passing.

Thank you to every single man in that house for making this move in your lives and we hope and pray that we have helped you in some small way to regain your strength, self-esteem and dignity

victory recovery program for women

shepherd house - dorchester

On Thursday July 21, 2022 Ricky, Inc. visited with the female residents and staff at the Shepherd House in Dorchester. This was our first of many visits to come and we were greeted by a friendly and helpful staff led by the Program Director Zanele McIntyre.

Rich spoke with the women for over 30 minutes, detailing Ricky's story, the effects on loved ones, staying strong in recovery and the importance of ending the stigma of addiction. The women were impressed when Rich took the items out of a backpack to show them the contents they were about to receive. They were so gracious and appreciative for each and every item and let him know how much it really meant to them.

Many of them were also giving condolences and saying how proud Ricky would be of his parents for doing this work for people in need and showing them kindness and compassion, both of which they stated that they are not used to receiving especially from strangers. The atmosphere was so very friendly and comfortable even though we were in the middle of an incredible heat wave.

After the question and answer session, the women each received their backpacks and every one of them came up to and personally thanked Rich. Several of them stayed and spoke about their stories and stated that our visit was inspirational to them.

We were able to distribute 23 backpacks to all of the clients in the program, several Grief Packets and each woman also received one of our purple Ricky, Inc. bracelets with our web site and motto; Respecting Individuals with Care & Kindness You matter.

Helping people in need, 1 step, 1 day & 1 person at a time

We CAN make a difference

Always in the name of our beloved Ricky

norwood veterans receive backpacks

veterans affairs director add's to his resources

On Tuesday August 2, 2022 Ricky, Inc. visited the Town of Norwood Veterans Affairs Director Teddy Mulvehill and made another backpack delivery.

These 13 backpacks will benefit local male and female veterans who need assistance and may be facing homelessness, mental health issues and/or substance use disorder. Teddy does great work in providing services and finding homes for veterans in crisis. He will distribute these backpacks as the need arises and we will continue to provide the Town of Norwood and its Veterans with these materials.

Thank you to the men and women who have served our country, and to Teddy (USMC) for all he does to support and provide benefits for the Veterans.

We at Ricky Inc want Veterans to know that they matter and we are here for them.

Always in the name of our beloved son Ricky

building backpacks in maine

assembled & ready to go

On Monday Aug. 8, 2022 Ricky, Inc. and The Family Restored collaborated and partnered up to build and distribute 60 Summer backpacks in Portland, Maine.

Each backpack was individually filled by the volunteers with the usual Summer contents that included Narcan (compliments of The Family Restored) and a resource manual for substance use disorder help/support/and programming in the State of Maine.

Pictured from The Family Restored is Rachel, Mary, Brittney, and Eric G.

From Portland Sober Living; Eric H., Jacob, John, and Noah.

From Atlantic House is Judah.

www.thefamilyrestored.org

enjoying their work

All volunteers brought their good mood and bright smiles to the assembly line.

In the foreground on the right packing a backpack is The Family Restored Executive Director Eric Girard alongside new TFR staff member Rachel

teamwork

It is a collective effort to pack this many bags properly, and Ricky Inc.'s Quality Control Expert, Bernadette, is overseeing the great work of the men from Portland Sober Living and Atlantic House.

The backpacks, 35 male & 25 female, were divided into two sets of 30 and distributed to Preble Street Health Services Center and Milestone Recovery Home Team

Milestone recovery

Accepting the backpacks from Rich are Milestone Recovery Home Team members Courtney & Brooks.

They are part of a team that offers mobile services for Milestone clients.

www.milestone-recover.org

preble street health services

Preble Street Health Services provides many much needed resources and has accepted the backpacks for their clients from the Ricky, Inc./Family Restored collaborative group

Pictured above L-R: Eric, Rich, Rachel, Brittney & Daniel

www.preblestreet.org

We are grateful today in hopes that we may have made even a small difference in the life of those that need it; reminding them that they are loved, respected and they matter to us.

the stakes are high - overdose awareness event

seven years of memorial flags

On Saturday August 20, 2022 a team of 11 people planted over 14,000 different colored flags on Foxboro Common.

Each color represented one year of persons lives being lost to an overdose in Massachusetts.

Each flag was in remembrance of each person lost during that year.

the ricky, inc. team

Ricky, Inc. was well represented at this event and sent Rich, Bernadette and Christopher Giacoppo to spend the day (10am-4:30pm) helping to plant all of the flags on the Common.

A very laborious but extremely worthwhile task.

Chris working hard

each flag is carefully planted

One of our Maine Street Outreach Coordinators and dedicated volunteer, Chris Giacoppo is seen above planting some of the Orange flags representing the 2,100 lives lost during 2016 to this insidious disease.

each flag is carefully planted

Bernadette Giacoppo, our newly elected Vice President, is diligently planting Blue flags into the 2018 section where 2,033 lives were lost to an overdose.

Please Do Your Part to End the Stigma of Substance Use Disorder and please always remember our Ricky

rich doing his part

Ricky, Inc. President Rich Giacoppo is securing the Neon Green flags into the 2019 section.

This was the year in which we lost our Ricky and our lives changed forever.

We will continue to remember Ricky by helping those in crisis for as long as we are able.

remembering those we lost

2015 - Green - 1,710 Lives

2016 - Orange - 2,100 Lives

2017 - Yellow - 2,500 Lives

2018 - Blue - 2,033 Lives

2019 - Neon - 1,952 Lives

2020 - Red - 2,035 Lives

2021 - Purple - 2,290 Lives

14,620 Lives lost to Overdose

The Stakes Are High event will culminate on Sunday Aug. 28, 2022 10am-2pm at Foxboro Common

Please join us and help stop this horrible disease from taking anymore of our loved ones!

we've been approved to distribute naloxone/narcan

This is Ricky with his family “photo bomb” precious Lady, Nicholas, Ricky, Tig, Christian, Sissy and Christopher. Our love is love for each other.

Its Official - We have been approved!

There are five days left to “International Overdose Awareness Month”. As we have said many times there are no words to fully describe losing our son to an overdose. Ricky fought this insidious disease for many years and our hearts are forever broken.

We have said Ricky was a fierce advocate of Narcan (Naloxone). Ricky carried it with him at all times. He told me “Mum carry it in your purse you could save a life”. And I do. We saved our beloved son’s life in our own home at least three times over the years with the Narcan Ricky gave us. As traumatic as this was each time we saved our son we had our Ricky with us. If only he had that chance on the day our world was forever changed.

We applied to the State of MA to be approved to the “Community Naloxone Purchasing Program” (CNPP) Affiliate Program. We are honored to announce we have been officially approved. We are hoping to have the ability to distribute Naloxone by September which is “National Recovery Month”. We thank Ricky for this. His passion was to get Narcan into as many hands as possible. I was once told by a Naloxone Trainer that while in rehab she would love to see Ricky as he was a joy and could easily have taught the class himself.

From the first backpacks we distributed it was our mission to learn how we could distribute Narcan. We truly don’t know how, after only six months of losing our beautiful boy we began this mission. We were still in shock from losing him and feel we still are.

This one is for you Ricky, we promise to uphold your dream. Naloxone saves lives and there is no question about it. The next few days leading up to Overdose Awareness Day we will post information on Naloxone.

If you will, please say a thank you to Ricky today for guiding us through this process and our success.

Forever Ricky’s Mum and Dad

Norwood community media

interview on norwood digest

On Tuesday Sept. 13, 2022 Rich was interviewed by Jack McCarthy on his cable show "Norwood Digest". They discussed the activities and services that Ricky, Inc. provides and highlighted the valuable backpack program including the incredible Resource Manual that they designed for people in crisis to get help.

Rich brought a backpack stuffed with hygiene products, winter clothing and much more and took each item out to show just how many items the backpacks are filled with.

Rich also announced that the 3rd Annual Ricky, Inc. Online Auction 2022 will begin on Wednesday Oct. 12th and run for 5-days to Sunday Oct. 16th.

Registration will begin on Wednesday Oct. 5th and can accessed on the Ricky, Inc. website with easy to follow directions & tutorial at www.rickyinc.org

The entire interview can be seen on Norwood Community Media's Norwood Digest show in early October. For a sneak peek at the short teaser of that interview, click on the following YouTube link https://youtu.be/mabDbhhng0Mhttps://youtu.be/mabDbhhng0M

closing in on 2,000 backpacks

Andrew House men's detox jamaica plain

On Friday Sept. 30, 2022 Rich & Bea visited the Andrew House Treatment Center for Men in Boston. After speaking with the residential clients and conducting a question and answer session, they distributed 25 Backpacks as well as 10 doses of life-saving Naloxone/Narcan safety kits.

The couple also delivered 30 juice boxes for the men, dropped off puzzle books and artist's canvasses for the Ricky Memorial Reading Room and then took a tour of the facility with Kayla Cordoza and Robert Watson.

Pictured above is Rich holding up one of the Narcan Safety Kits, Andrew House Program Director Kayla Cordoza and Ricky, Inc. Vice President Bernadette Giacoppo

Ricky, Inc. Naloxone/Narcan safety kits

Our Naloxone/Narcan Safety Kits include:

Two 4mg doses of Narcan Nasal Spray
Instructions on how to administer the nasal spray
Instructions on how to respond to an overdose
Fold-out instructions on how to Stop An Overdose
Ricky, Inc. business card with emergency contact info.
A substance abuse Helpline card & info - Hope Is Here

delivering life-saving narcan safety kits

helping a community in need

On Sunday Oct. 2, 2022 Bea & Rich took to the streets for our first Ricky, Inc. Narcan Street Outreach Program in Boston. We went to an area that was filled with hundreds of homeless people and most were also suffering from Substance Use Disorder.

We walked the area known as "Mass & Cass" with our cart filled with our life-saving Ricky, Inc. Safety Kits and offered to give them to anyone that wanted to receive them. Many people spoke with us and were extremely grateful to receive the safety kits that we provided. We also spent time on Atkinsons and Topeka Streets meeting many people that were struggling or in crisis; offering whatever assistance we may be able to provide.

We received many compliments along the way and were told that we were "doing God's work". Several people were visibly moved by our being there for them and commented that we were "saving lives by doing this". We appreciate that, but truly believe that we are only doing what our son Ricky would have wanted us to do in his memory. He was a big advocate of Narcan and this was the main reason and driving force behind us getting registered with the State to distribute it.

At the end of the day we had delivered 80 doses of Narcan to persons in a very risky setting in the City of Boston.

One Step, One Person, One Day at a time.

Full interview

powerful information

In September, Ricky, Inc.'s President Rich Giacoppo sat down with Norwood Community Media's Jack McCarthy and filmed a segment for his weekly show Norwood Digest.

Please click on the following link to view the entire approximately 55 minute interview that included lots of information about Ricky, Inc., our nonprofit charitable activities and some powerful information regarding grief from the loss of a loved one.

https://reflect-npa.cablecast.tv/vod/12092-Digest-RichG-v1/vod.mp4

Special Thanks to Meghan Staffiere-Corbett, Brian Boudreau, Jack McCarthy and the entire staff at Norwood Community Media for making this possible.

helping any way we can

Life saving narcan

On Thursday November 17, 2022, Rich & Bernadette went back to the Mass & Cass area of Boston and through our Narcan Street Outreach Program we distributed 42 doses of Naloxone. This area is overcrowded with homeless people, most of whom suffer from substance use disorder and/or mental health issues.

With the number of overdose deaths rapidly rising everyday, its a necessity to have this potentially life saving device on hand in case a medical response is needed. Naloxone (Narcan) can be administered within seconds and can be the difference between life and death.

We will continue our mission to help as many people in need (crisis) as possible and distribute Naloxone to the people that need it the most.

clothing need

Life saving narcan

On Tuesday November 22, 2022, Ricky, Inc. delivered specially sized winter clothing for an individual associated with the Gavin House in South Boston. This gentleman was in the process of his recovery and needed some winter clothing that we were only too happy to provide for him at this time of year.

We do not customarily issue personal clothing other than the contents of our backpacks (hats, gloves, socks, etc.). However in this case we were fortunate enough to have just received this specialized clothing as a donation at the same time that he needed it.

Thank you to the donor and timing is everything !