By Paula Schleis
Beacon Journal business writer
``The revolution starts today,'' Raynard Packard said, again and again, to supporters who showed up for opening day of the Packard Institute this month.
And a revolution is exactly how Packard sees his new nonprofit agency, which is reaching out to emotionally troubled youngsters for whom traditional counseling is not enough.
``It's time we rethink how we treat these kids,'' said Packard, who has spent the last 14 years working with abused and addicted teens as a counselor with the Akron Health Department.
The institute is tucked into the ground floor of the Highland Square Apartments and Offices building west of downtown Akron.
``We're offering a whole range of mind/body therapeutic tools that kids can integrate into their lives,'' Packard explained.
The Packard Institute's style of treatment might seem unorthodox, but it's already popular in other areas of the country. Ohio ``is about 15 years behind the times in terms of providing the most effective and enlightened treatment services,'' Packard said.
The institute officially opened for business at 5 p.m. May 1, 2007 just hours after the furniture had been delivered and before the phones were even operational.
But Packard was determined to stay on schedule and was rewarded by a steady stream of friends, family and colleagues who turned out to wish him well.
``What also was really edifying for me was how many of my former clients who are now adults showed up and affirmed what we we're doing,'' he said.
The ``we're'' in his statement is a team of about 30 volunteers Packard has assembled, most of whom have addiction in their own backgrounds.
``I've brought together what I consider the most passionate, enlightened, talented group of treatment professionals that I'm aware of,'' he said.
Until revenue starts coming in, the unpaid ``adjunct faculty'' has been donating ``tens of thousands of dollars of clock hours,'' Packard said.
He can't hide some anxiousness about the new organization's finances. About $10,000 in start-up money came from his own pocket and he has a two-year lease in his name.
``I'm in this for keeps. No surrender, no retreat,'' he said.
His dreams were on slow simmer for more than a decade until earlier this year, when things started falling into place, ``as if the planets aligned,'' he said. ``The players are showing up, serendipitous, beautiful and timely.''
So far, the clients have been trickling in through referrals from sources Packard has collected throughout his career: probation officers, children's services workers, halfway houses, ministers.
``I always felt in my heart that if we built it, they would come,'' Packard said.
That's because Packard knows what worked for him.
A self-described ``wild, purple-haired, rockin', rollin' misfit kid,'' he grew up in Akron and then Los Angeles, where he began experimenting with drugs in his early teens.
At 22, he tried to turn his life around by joining the Army and becoming a paratrooper. He left the 18th Airborne Corps and became a member of the Army Reserves, but was booted out in 1990 for drinking.
At 29, he checked into the Veterans Administration hospital in Brecksville and began his climb up from rock bottom.
Packard went on to earn a master's degree in counseling and dedicated himself to helping kids who are battling the same demons that once haunted him.
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