KO Addiction Foundation KO Addiction
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Our Mission is to ‘Knock Out’ Addiction

Operation KO Addiction Foundation works to provide expenses related to substance abuse treatment for military service members, veterans and first responders.

To that end, KO Addiction focuses on:

  • Inspiring the generosity of donors and participants to help uninsured and under-insured individuals obtain access to quality addiction treatment.

  • Working with communities and schools to educate our youth on the perils of addiction, and to promote changing addictive behaviors to healthy habits through speaking engagements and youth outreach.

  • Being a voice in the addiction treatment community to promote positive change, hold treatment centers accountable to put patients before profits, and to further develop treatment modalities to obtain better outcomes.

Drug and alcohol addiction is one of the most significant problems affecting our society today with direct impacts including increased death, crime, incarceration, poor health, and family discord. The government and insurance companies are doing little to prevent or stop this serious issue which is responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 Americans each year, as well as countless other devastating effects to the people around them. Rather than enacting legislation and policies that strive to end addiction and help people maintain long term sobriety, they instead disproportionately allocate funding and attention to other areas of medicine deemed more important. Insurance carriers are driven by bottom line profit and will not change unless forced to do so.

The lack of attention by our representatives in government and the indifference of insurance carriers are not working. We intend to use our platform to raise awareness of these issues, engage our community to provide support, and empower individuals to force change.

How KO Addiction Started

Shane SantaCroce is a top-level mentor and business coach, as well as a leader in the drug addiction treatment industry. After 8 years of working in the industry as a digital marketing specialist, sales manager, and patient advocate, Shane helped develop the KO Addition Boxing Series with the goal of helping military service members, veterans, and first responders obtain access to quality treatment. Shane has been an outspoken advocate for change within the treatment industry for many years, including speaking on panel discussions and as a presenter with the Florida State Attorney’s Office, “Sober Home Task Force”.

Shane recognized the shortfalls in the insurance system that were designed to help military service members, veterans, and first responders often lack financial resources due in large part to the substance addictions and mental health issues brought on by the stress and trauma of their service. Shane, along with other like-minded individuals believe that Service Members deserve more and better treatment than what insurance currently provides. Shane and others developed a mission to give veterans, active military and first responders the best chance at longer term sobriety and recovery by bridging the gap between what insurance benefits may cover and what treatment centers are allowed to provide.

Shane discovered that one treatment center uses boxing as a useful tool to assist patient in treatment for alcohol and drug abuse by helping them to change their addictive behaviors into healthy habits. Boxing provides patients with a much needed physical and emotional release from talk therapy, allowing them to better focus during treatment. It also helps them to develop the mental strength and perseverance needed to maintain long term sobriety. Once Shane started hearing the testimonials from doctors and patients, he started to think about the possibilities of using the boxing platform to raise awareness, to draw financial resources, and to provide an opportunity to educate our youth. It was then that the Operation KO Addiction Foundation was born.