About

Impact Life currently offers peer-led recovery support services Statewide. In addition, Impact Life operates recovery residences in partnership with atTAcK addiction (funded by Delaware Health and Social Services/DHSS) for those re-entering society post-residential treatment. IMPACT Life recently launched DE’s first Recovery Clubhouse program featuring comprehensive recovery services, workforce development and therapeutic programs (with seed funding from Highmark Blueprints) and completed a workforce development initiative that included multiple job fairs and COVID-19 vaccination campaigns Statewide. That initiative was funded by the DHSS CARES Act Health Care Relief Fund, and served 2800 people in 3 months. We are also launching DE’s first Recovery Farm which will offer recovery housing, case management, peer support, and animal-assisted therapy, coupled with a therapeutic agricultural workforce development program. The Recovery Farm is being funded by the DE State Housing Authority (DSHA) in partnership with DE’s Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health (DSAMH). 

Impact Life staff are representative of the population we serve. We are staffed with individuals who have gone through the recovery process themselves, who understand what clients go through emotionally to regain their independence and maintain their sobriety, and understand their cultural backgrounds. Our staff reside and socialize in the communities we serve, which tend to be low income, underserved, disenfranchised communities. Some members of our board of directors also live in those communities. The rest work in those communities daily, and many board members have come through recovery and criminal justice and are reflective of the population of focus.

IMPACT Life was founded by Board President Domenica Personti, a recovery and re-entry expert with lived experience in recovery, extensive training and leadership. She has designed   and led numerous successful treatment, outreach, and prevention programs. Ms. Personti is a Delaware native who has represented the State at the local and National level as a trainer, motivational speaker, and industry leader. Ms. Personti was invited to speak at the White House in 2016 as part of the Association of Prosecuting Attorneys annual conference.  Ms Personti has 27 years’ experience in Behavioral Health Treatment and Prevention, including direct service and administrative management of programs. She brings many years of related experience in the operation of not-for-profit organizations, focusing on outreach, treatment, legislative advocacy, funding, prevention and education for the SUD population. She is a licensed clinician and holds a Masters Degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. In addiction she holds multiple addictions and prevention certifications. While working at a local non-profit she participated in the creation of one of the first syringe exchange programs in the country. In addition, she also managed the first hospital-based peer engagement program in the Country, Project Engage, which won an award from the White House in 2007, for the program’s great impact and efficacy. In addition to those milestone programs, Domenica also helped develop and manage the first prostitution diversion program in the State. She has traveled all over the US training other states to adopt the methodology of these programs, through conferences and site visits. Ms. Personti has years of experience managing successful, complex programs. Her experience includes managing over $6.6 million in federal grants to provide intensive case management to homeless substance abusers, prevention grants targeting individuals who are underserved and diagnosed with HIV or HEP C, medical grants that allowed for mobile medical services statewide, plus Delaware’s first Prostitution Diversion Program, and Delaware’s first Naloxone Distribution Program. In her current role outside of Impact Life, Domenica manages programs with operating budgets in upwards of $41 million. She has assembled coalitions of practitioners statewide in Delaware, as well as Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey that interact with the population of focus, including community health/public health providers, law enforcement agencies, court professionals, corrections professionals, and local academic institutions.