Success Stories

Success stories from Narconon graduates and their family members are a powerful testament to the workability of the Narconon Program and are one of the best forms of promotion that your Narconon Center can utilize.

Why Success Stories?

Personal stories from your graduates and their family members can be a powerful tool in your promotional arsenal for several reasons:

Success stories help build trust: Stories from successful graduates can help build trust with families and individuals who are looking for a workable program. When prospective students or their families see positive reviews from real people, it can increase their confidence that the Narconon Program is the solution they’ve been looking for.
Increases credibility: Testimonials can increase the credibility of your Narconon Center by demonstrating that other people have had positive experiences doing the Narconon Program at your center.
Differentiates from other programs: Success stories can help differentiate the Narconon Program from other addiction treatment programs by highlighting the unique benefits or features of the program or your center.
Increase reaches and starts: Success stories can ultimately lead to increased reaches and starts, as prospective students and their families are more likely to make a decision to reach out to your center when they see positive reviews from real people who have already done the program.

This article was put together to provide you with some successful guidelines to follow in gathering success stories from your graduates and their family members.

A Step-By-Step Guide to Get Success Stories

When graduates and families understand that sharing their story can help other individuals and families who are struggling with addiction, they are often eager and happy to share their success.

The steps for getting a success story are:

Coordinate with those concerned on who you will contact for a follow-up success story. For example, the Graduate Officer will often know who is really winning in life and would be a good candidate to interview.
Contact the graduate or family member of the graduate. After establishing communication, ask them if they would be willing to share their story about addiction and their experience with the Narconon Program. Let them know that their story can help others.
Once you obtain their agreement, find out if they would prefer to write their story themselves or if they would like to do an interview.
If they would like to write the story, share the appropriate set of below with them:
Let them know that they can use these questions as a guide and writing prompts, but they should not rotely answer the questions. The questions below contain instructions on how to use the questions which can be given to the individual in person or shared with them over email. If they would like you to interview them for their story, conduct the interview either in person or on the phone or via an online platform. It’s best if you can record or video the interview. Use the attached questions as a guide when doing your interview.
Ask the person for a photograph to share with their story. If they are with you in person, take a high-quality, professional photograph of them. If they are not with you in person, ask them to send you a high-quality photograph to include with their success story.
Have them sign the “Consent to Use Voice, Image, and Likeness Waiver of Liability and Release” form.

Once you have written the success story based on the interview, or if they have shared their written story with you, make any necessary edits for grammar and clarity. If there are any significant edits, be sure to share the edits with the individual and get their okay before submitting their success story to be published.

All new graduates should be asked to share their success story after they complete the program. You can also follow up with graduates after they have completed the program and returned home to share their story. You can also ask family members to share their story, particularly, if the family member is close with the graduate and have been involved in their recovery. Be sure to request the graduate’s permission before contacting a family member.

Success Story Photographs

Why Are Real Photographs Important?

Authentic photographs of your graduates and/or their family help to increase the affinity, reality and communication of the reader with the Narconon program and your center. It's often said that a photograph is worth a thousand words, this is true of real photographs of graduates as well.

What Should the Photographs Look Like?

High-quality, professional photographs are taken of Narconon graduates to post with their success story on the Narconon center blog. Photos should be taken in a scenic location of the center. Ideally, the photo is taken outside with nice natural lighting. The background should be appealing and distraction free. Below are examples of high-quality, well composed Narconon graduate photos.

How Long Should a Success Story Be?

Written success stories should minimally be 500 words in length, but are ideally 800 to 1,200 words.

How Do I Publish the Success Story on My Website?

Once you have the written success story, photograph and signed waiver, submit these through the Content Management Application to be published on your website.

Success Story Interview Questions

Narconon Graduate Success Story Interview Questions

Use these questions as a guide and answer the questions that seem applicable or interest you. These questions are simply meant to help as a prompt and to help generate other ideas. When writing your story, it’s helpful to include specific details about how you felt, your thoughts and realizations, any sensory details that you recall about specific significant moments—these can help transport the reader to be there in the moment with you. Most importantly, this is your story to share, and we want to hear what you want to share with others!

Where were you born and raised?
What was your life like before you started doing drugs?
What was one of the happiest moments in your life you can remember before you started doing drugs?
When did you first start using drugs? How did you start using drugs?
How did drugs affect your life, what did you lose, how did it impact your relationships with your family?
What lead you to coming to Narconon? Often there is a particular event that occurs to bring a person to Narconon.
Have you ever been to another rehab program? How did that compare to Narconon?
How did you find Narconon?
Tell us about your arrival and how you felt when you first arrived here, how were the staff, what comforted you, and what made you stay?
Without talking about a specific step of the program or a specific staff member, give three of your biggest wins on the program. Let us know how your perceptions changed and how that helped you leave drugs behind.
How did you feel about graduation?
What are you looking forward to?
What is your proudest accomplishment?
How is your relationship with your family now?
What is your favorite thing about being drug free now?
What advice would you give to someone who is in active addiction now?

Long Term Graduate Success Story Interview Questions

Where were you born and raised?
What was your life like before you started doing drugs?
What was one of the happiest moments in your life you can remember before you started doing drugs?
When did you first start using drugs? How did you start using drugs?
How did drugs affect your life, what did you lose, how did it impact your relationships with your family?
What lead you to coming to Narconon? Often there is a particular event that occurs to bring a person to Narconon.
How did you find Narconon?
Tell us about your arrival and how you felt when you first arrived here, how were the staff, what comforted you, and what made you stay?
Without talking about a specific step of the program or a specific staff member, give me three of your biggest wins on the program. We want to know how your perceptions changed and how that helped you leave drugs behind.
How did you feel about graduation?
What are you looking forward to?
What is your proudest accomplishment?
How is your relationship with your family now.
What is your favorite thing about being drug free now?
What advice would you give to someone who is in active addiction now?
What advice do you have for those early in recovery?

Narconon Graduate Parent or Family Member Success Story Interview Questions

What was your son or daughter/family member like before he/she was addicted to drugs/alcohol?
When did they start using drugs? What were the things you noticed that indicated there was a problem?
How did addiction change your relationship with your son/daughter/family member? How did your son/daughter/family member change because of addiction?
What was the hardest or worst part about dealing with an addicted child/family member?
When did you know you had to get them help? Was there a certain event?
How did you find the Narconon Program?
What made you choose the Narconon Program?
What was the process of getting them to treatment like? Did they need an intervention?
How did you feel about the staff when you found Narconon? What impression were you left with about the staff?
While your son/daughter/family member was doing the Narconon Program, did you notice any changes? If so, what were the most remarkable changes you noticed?
Did you attend the graduation? If so, what was that experience like for you?
After graduation what was the first thing you noticed?
What is your relationship like now?
What’s the best thing about your son/daughter/family member now they have completed the Narconon Program?
What do you want for your loved one’s future?
How did Narconon help your loved one?
What stood out the most to you regarding your experience with Narconon?
What advice would you give to another parent/family who has an addicted child/family member?

Summary

Through standard delivery of the Narconon Program, your center saves lives. Share the good news of the Narconon Program and inspire others to achieve true recovery through success stories from your graduates and their families.