Educare-main
By David Walsh

PHOTO: Steven Murff  took over as executive director of Educare in early June after having worked in the Williamson County criminal justice system for three years. / Photo by John McBryde 

By JOHN McBRYDE

As the new executive director of Educare, a counseling and substance abuse treatment program located on Natchez Street in Franklin, Steven Murff brings nearly two decades of experience working in the criminal justice system.

In fact, prior to his joining Educare in early June, Murff was the programs director and court liaison for the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office, developing both jail education and judicial re-entry programs for the county. He was hired by former Sheriff Jeff Long, now commissioner of Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security in Gov. Bill Lee’s administration.

Murff’s knowledge and skills working with criminal offenders and those men and women who have been incarcerated made him the ideal fit to head Educare, according to William Ables, president of the nonprofit’s board of directors.

More: A for-profit counseling and drug treatment program in Franklin switched to nonprofit to strengthen its mission

“Mr. Murff’s criminal justice experience makes him the right leader for our agency,” Ables said in a press release. “Educare has the opportunity to expand programming to ensure offenders get the substance abuse treatment and mental health care they need during their time in the criminal justice process, and also support offender re-entry into the community. Steven is the right person to guide Educare and expand programs to support our mission.”

Indeed, in the three years that Murff worked with the Williamson County jail system, he broadened its ability to better serve the inmates there as far as giving them a second chance.

“When I got to the jail,” Murff said, “I did a needs assessment and looked around and thought, wow, there is so much state funding available for programs we could be doing in this jail that no one was aware of or didn’t ask about it.

“We truly took the jail from four faith-based programs and a GED program to about 12 different programs, a majority of which are state-certified and state-funded that give inmates engaged in criminal justice system that are on probation violations a second chance. … So I’ve had a pretty good run here in Williamson County.”

Reducing the criminal component

Educare dates to 1998, when June and Jim McHenry founded it as a batterers’ intervention program for domestic violence cases. The center operated as a for-profit business until it changed to a nonprofit agency in June 2018. Prior to Murff’s arrival, Educare was run by Tony Owens, who still serves as its clinic director.

Through programs such as a DUI safety school, anger management and conflict resolution and recovery court involvement, much of Educare’s focus is on the criminal justice system. But it offers counseling and treatment for those who have, say, a substance abuse problem that hasn’t reached the level of a crime.

“For just those everyday people, I want them to know if they’re in need of treatment and they know they have an issue, I really want to intervene early so we can reduce the criminal component,” Murff said. “I don’t want their disease to re-stigmatize them, and I think that’s what holds a lot of people back because no one wants to live with the stigma of having, say, a bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. The last thing we want to do is to create the trauma of a third stigma of being a convicted felon.

“I think Educare reaches its full potential, working with our clinical director and staff and getting out into the community and helping individuals through reducing the stigma that unfortunately these issues create. It kind of isolates people and puts them in their own group, and honestly they’re just everyday people trying to make it through every day of life but they’re dealing with a little something extra and need a little extra support. Whatever their needs are, I need Educare to be there to help them.”

Fighting the epidemics

The nation, of course, is facing an opioid and a methamphetamine epidemic, and Murff insists that Educare be at the battlefront in helping with the crisis in Williamson County as well as the other counties it serves — Hickman, Lewis, Perry, Marshall, Dickson and Maury.

“It’s an epidemic we’re going to have to deal with,” Murff said. “In Williamson County, we have problems with meth and opioid, in the rural areas mainly. I think Educare will be able to provide and be proactive to getting that information and education out to the communities. We can go into these communities via education-training assistance, be the conduit to recovery that these rural communities in Williamson County need. That is my ultimate goal.”

Murff had spent most of his career in the Nashville criminal justice system, but he now feels at home in Williamson County and believes Educare will continue to expand its services and help those in need at all levels.

“I’m happy to be a part of this community,” he said. “We can do what anybody else can do, and we can do it better. I’ve been at the forefront of assisting both the judges and community service agencies and saying let’s find a way to work together, let’s find a way to do this better so that we capture the entire community.”