Jonesboro, AR — (JonesboroRightNow.com) — July 4, 2025 — St. Bernards Behavioral Health announced it will be holding its first O’Fishally Sober event for its Craighead County STAR Court participants next week.

Kevin Byron, assistant vice president of St. Bernards Behavioral Health Division, said the STAR (Sobriety Treatment Accountability Recovery) Court program has been beneficial to the community and St. Bernards wished to show its continued support of this program with events like this.

The event, created by St. Bernards Behavioral Health LCSW (licensed clinical social worker) and therapist Carmen Boyd, will be July 11 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Craighead Forest Park Pavilion 3. It will feature fishing, food, giveaways, and more.

“The thought behind this is to provide activities to the community as a support system for people that are in the program,” Boyd said. “We want to start creating events during which we can actually engage them within the community so that they can have fun and create a new support system for one another.”

While Boyd would like to see this become an annual event, she said she also hopes to create more like it.

“We’re just getting our feet wet with this fishing tournament and barbeque,” she said. “We want participants and their families to come and enjoy. I hope it can become large enough to extend it to the entire community eventually, but this is our first time, so we’re going to see how it’s going to go.”

According to the Craighead County website, STAR Court identifies, develops and implements alternatives to serving jail time for people with alcohol and drug related driving offenses. Byron said STAR Court gives offenders the chance to stay out of jail by participating in the program. It allows them to keep their license, their job, and the chance to continue seeing their family.

As part of the 16-month program, participants must meet certain graduation requirements, including an initial assessment done by a therapist, which is where Boyd and St. Bernards Behavioral Health peer support specialist Cassie Cooper come in.

Boyd does the initial assessments and then schedules individual and group sessions and Cooper, who is also peer recovery supervisor for the State of Arkansas, helps participants cope with their substance abuse issues.

St. Bernards provides these services through a contract with City of Jonesboro and Craighead County, Byron said. He noted the graduations ceremonies for the participants and their testimonies.

“Some of them will get up and they will tell their testimony about how they went through the program and the struggles that they’ve had and some of the stories are really good. I mean, it’s really good to hear people get on the right track and turn their lives around,” Byron said. “When they get up there and say they have 16 months sober or however long it is, we know that we’re making a difference, and we know that the City of Jonesboro is making a difference.”