Help Me Reclaim My Life’s Work and Provide for My Children

For over a decade, I’ve dedicated my life to helping individuals and families impacted by addiction. I founded the Missouri Network for Opiate Reform and Recovery (MO Network) as a living amends to my parents, who both passed away from cancer. After overcoming my own struggles with addiction following their deaths, I honored them by building something lifesaving. Starting with nothing but determination, I grew the organization into one of the most respected harm reduction and recovery nonprofits in the country. I was the first person in Missouri to distribute naloxone and pioneer harm reduction strategies. Our work saved countless lives, changed laws, and gave hope to thousands. Why I’m Asking for Help This is only the second time I’ve spoken publicly about what happened, after briefly sharing on social media last week. Many of you still don’t know the full story. I was wrongfully terminated by a board of directors who, according to the organization’s own bylaws, neither constituted a legal board nor had the authority to remove me. What I built wasn’t just a career, it was the legacy I intended to leave my children—something they could always be proud of when they told people who their dad is. MO Network wasn’t just a nonprofit; it was a promise I made to my parents’ memory and to my kids’ future. Since my termination, I’ve been left unemployable in Missouri—completely shut out of the very community I helped build. Remote work in harm reduction and recovery is incredibly difficult to secure, and as a single father raising two children full time, the financial strain has been overwhelming. This is not just about fighting for my career—it’s about fighting to provide for my family. In their own court filings, they admitted they hadn’t held a board meeting for nearly two years before firing me. Yet after my termination, Ned Presnall (Board President) and Michelle Charbonnier (Deputy Director and now Executive Director) gathered my community—the very people I considered family—and knowingly lied about the circumstances of my departure to protect themselves. Their defamation shattered my reputation and my ability to work in the field I helped build. It even affected my children, who lost their support system and community overnight. They went so far as to remove every mention of my name from the organization’s website, as if I never existed—while continuing to benefit from the work and reputation I spent years building. The Legal Fight I filed a lawsuit against them for breach of fiduciary duty and defamation, but they’ve delayed every step of the way. After filing on February 23, 2023, they ignored the 30-day court-ordered response deadline and filed 98 days late. Then they delayed responding to discovery requests for 80 days. My attorney, working in good faith, withdrew a motion to compel—only for them to turn around and refuse a simple continuance, forcing us to dismiss the case without prejudice and refile. This pattern of delay tactics has dragged the case out for over two years and caused serious financial harm to me and my family. To make matters worse, before providing any discovery, they demanded a protective order—even though this is a public charity whose records should already be transparent. The protective order is public record, available on Missouri’s Casenet system. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about why they needed added protection over public documents. Why This Matters I’m fighting for more than just myself. If you or someone you love has benefited from naloxone, overdose immunity laws, or harm reduction services in Missouri—chances are my work played a role. I helped shape Missouri’s opioid response and co-authored the federal harm reduction framework that’s now used nationwide. On top of this personal hardship, I have to watch my own community continue to suffer. Since my termination, there have been no meaningful changes or improvements in Missouri’s harm reduction response. The momentum we built has stalled, and countless people across the state are paying the price for it. This isn’t just my fight—it’s about accountability and ensuring life-saving work moves forward. How You Can Help I hate asking for help, but I have no choice. My attorney has been working on a quasi-contingency basis, but I already owe nearly $15,000 in legal fees for the extraordinary amount of work put into this case. Your support will help pay down that balance and cover critical litigation costs, including: Court filing fees, Deposition and court reporter costs, Other necessary litigation expenses. If I recover these funds through a judgment, I fully intend to repay every single contributor. I will also provide full transparency on how every dollar is spent. Current Case Status For those wanting to follow the case, you can find the original lawsuit under Case Number 2322-CC00386 - CHAD SABORA V MISSOURI NETWORK FOR OPIATE ET AL on Missouri’s Casenet system and see for yourselves, their late tactics and their answer to my lawsuit. The new lawsuit we filed against them is also on Casenet 25SL-CC04826 - CHAD SABORA V MISSOURI NETWORK FOR OPIATE RE ET AL Final Call to Action Your support—whether through a donation or simply sharing this page—will help me stand up against injustice, fight for my kids’ future, and restore the legacy I built from nothing.