Alaina Knox
Someone offered Alaina Knox drugs during her final weeks in prison. She almost took them. But an inner voice stopped her, and the next day she was randomly drug tested. That moment of choice set her o…
Finding Strength in Sobriety
Monique Coombs woke in panic after a party in January 2019, asking herself why she kept doing this to herself. She hasn't had a drink since. Now, as director of programs for Maine Coast Fishermen's As…
Kenny Williams Choosing to Be of Service
Kenny Williams noticed a vacant building as a kid and asked his aunt why no one fixed it up for homeless people. Decades later, after getting sober through recovery meetings and therapy, he found his…
Finding Strength
Jenn Williams survived a stroke, but she's spent years helping others navigate something harder: rebuilding after brain injury while managing substance use disorder. She knows recovery isn't a finish…
Mr. Drew: Animals and His Sobriety, Too
Discover the heartwarming journey of Mr. Drew and His Animals, Too. From recovery to creating smiles, Andrew’s inspiring story shows the power of second chances and spreading joy. Join the community:…
James Rickrode
James Rickrode once consumed a gallon of vodka daily and threatened his wife. That felony arrest sent him to jail, where something shifted. Seven years later, he runs Fresh Start Sober Living, managin…
Bridgton’s Strong Recovery Network
A small Maine town gathers at a community rally to remember Dr. Peter Leighton, a physician in recovery who helped build something remarkable. Bridgton now has emergency doctors, counselors, peer coac…
Removing Stigma From the Employment Equation
Nearly three thousand working-age people were missing from Washington County's employment figures. Economists wondered who they were and where. That question led to something unexpected: a network con…
Personal Recovery Story: Matt Senecal
Matt Senecal built a successful construction company, owned multiple homes and a boat, yet measured his worth by possessions he was terrified to lose. When the market crashed in 2008, his identity sha…
Compassion in Action: Bethany Johnson
Bethany Johnson hands a caller a folder of recovery resources, her voice steady with certainty: "We do recover and we are never alone." Eight years sober in the small Maine town where addiction once c…
Dan Belyea
Dan Belyea divided his returnable bottles among different stores, gained seventy pounds, and drank alone every evening at home. He thought no one could see the problem. Now, after seventeen years sobe…
Recovered, with April Tomah
April Tomah once struggled with heroin for ten years, surviving at least eight overdoses. Today, the forty-five-year-old mother of three chairs the Wabanaki Two Spirit Alliance and works in public hea…
SaVida Health Favors ‘Compassionate Accountability’
A team member asked how to hold members accountable while showing support. That question, posed in August 2021, sparked SaVida Health's core philosophy: compassionate accountability. At their Maine op…
Generational Noor
When Amran Osman's brother died from an overdose, she realized her Somali community stayed silent about substance use disorder. Fear kept people from seeking help. Now the 24-year-old is breaking that…
The Power of Prevention-focused Coalitions
A student at South Portland High School used a substance and faced suspension, a punishment that left them adrift. Now, when students struggle with substance use, they meet with a counselor instead. T…
A Southern Maine Woman's Story
A Southern Maine woman woke one morning knowing she had to stop. Hiding vodka and pain pills while her daughter asked why mom seemed so far away, she finally called her doctor. Thirty years later, she…
A Cultural Connection Drives Personal Transformation
Steven Knockwood walked out of prison in March 2020 as lockdown began, carrying years of self-sabotage and addiction. Four years into recovery, he now manages Opportunity House, an indigenous men's re…
Marshall Mercer
Marshall Mercer grew up searching for identity in all the wrong places: crime, then drugs, then prison. At 33, heroin nearly killed him multiple times. But in a jail cell, a stranger's smile and a Bib…
Millions of Cups of Coffee and Not a Drop to Drink
Helen Thorgalsen stands behind the counter at H.B. Provisions, the general store she built with her partner 20 years ago in Kennebunk. She's been sober for 34 years. This is her story of recovery, of…
Finding Meaningful Work and Helping Others Find Theirs
Zachary Walker turns 30 this summer, settling into a cottage with his girlfriend while helping other Mainers find jobs and stability. Seven years into his recovery, he works as a Peer Connector for Go…
Accessing Recovery Supports
Bruce Noddin sat in a prison ministry meeting when he noticed the same faces returning to the system again and again. That observation sparked a statewide network connecting corrections staff, nonprof…
Sober Living Comes Full Circle
Daryl needed someone to handle rent, utilities, furniture. Someone to manage the noise so he could focus on recovery. Years later, he and his fiancée Katahli opened two sober houses in Maine, giving o…
Maulian Dana
Maulian Dana woke up on June 4, 2018, after a Sunday she couldn't be proud of. She'd been drinking wine, arguing about politics, feeling shame wash over her each Monday morning. That day, she texted h…
Family Support Groups : help, hope and support for loved ones
Susan sat in a Nar Anon meeting nine years ago, worried sick about her son's addiction and unsure where to turn. She discovered something unexpected: she needed support too. Through the group, she lea…
The Farm – Maine’s oldest co-ed treatment center
Michael Yerema has watched people arrive at The Farm for 25 years, many from detox units or jail cells. Maine's oldest residential treatment center, nestled minutes from the Canadian border, offers so…
Mission Driven
Eddie Greyfox Burgess parks his turquoise 1965 Ford Fairlane at festivals and car shows, spreading health pamphlets and conversation. A former social worker and counselor in recovery since 1994, he tr…
Tech Support
Dr. Ted Logan didn't wait for a crisis to bring treatment online. Years before the pandemic, he moved his practice to video visits so rural Mainers could access care without driving hours or sacrifici…
Braided Services
Rhonda Decontie watched her father weave traditional singing and prayer into 12 step meetings, teaching her how culture and recovery belong together. Now, as clerk of the Penobscot Nation Healing to W…
Sophia’s House, a safe place to call home
In a restored convent on Lewiston's Blake Street, six women trafficking survivors will move into rooms of their own this year. Sophia's House offers two years rent-free, plus job training and support…
Brotherly Love
Ten men sit in a circle on Middle Street in Portland, shoes off, voices steady as they speak about hurt and hope. For twenty-three years, Stephen Andrew's Courageous Men Circles have offered something…
Recovery’s elder stateswoman celebrates four sober decades
Joan Giles was thirty-eight when she slipped on a shower floor, half-drunk, and imagined her sleeping daughter finding her unconscious. That moment changed everything. Now ninety, she has guided thous…
At Amistad, relationships are built on mutual respect
Brian Townsend watched someone arrive at Amistad carrying years of disappointment from places where help meant hierarchy. Here, staff trained in peer support see visitors as experts on their own lives…
All together now
On a Saturday night in downtown Brewer, 125 people crowd into a converted furniture store for peer support meetings and dancing. The BARN, a recovery center, has become a lifeline for people seeking c…
Transformed: Painter Eric Sorensen
Eric Sorensen pulls socks from his backpack to hand to people sleeping on Portland streets. Eleven years ago, he was one of them, pulling cardboard from dumpsters to survive. Today, he's a painter and…
Making Connections
A woman held up a sock monkey she'd stitched and said, "This is the first thing I've made in my life." In recovery programs across Maine, creative activities like painting, pottery, and fabric work ar…
Creative Expressions
Someone finds peace with hands in garden soil. Another unwinds rebuilding an engine. A third discovers calm while baking. Creative expression takes endless forms, and it's far more than art. It's how…
Fit For Recovery
Keagan Delaney takes a walk through Portland's nature trails most mornings, but his real fitness goes deeper. Two years into recovery, he's learned that getting physically strong builds the endurance…
Employers Open The Doors for Those in Recovery
Charlie Bickford runs Maine Paint's four locations and regularly hires people newly sober. When someone from a recovery meeting asks about work, he considers giving them a chance. His reasoning is sim…