Services of The Red Road House
Providing Everything You Need
Daily Life
In a recent year, all 19 residents who lived at The Red Road House came from chemically dependent homes. In their youth, they learned different ways of thinking than children in stable, healthy homes. Avoidance of personal responsibility for their places in the world seems to be a key factor in their troubles.
The Red Road House provides the atmosphere and guidance that can teach healthier ways of thinking, including personal responsibility, work ethics, contact with one's spiritual being, clean and sober social interaction skills, and good eating and hygiene habits. Residents must do weekly chores, meet with staff regularly, participate in ongoing supportive counseling, and attend several 12-step meetings weekly. They must work, attend school, or volunteer their services for a minimum of 20 hours each week. They must also clean up the wreckage of their past to be accountable for the present, and therefore must show proof of restitution, child support, traffic fines, utilities, or personal debts, especially those which would hinder future housing arrangements. They keep weekly accountability records which they discuss with staff.
The Red Road House program of recovery places heavy emphasis upon residents learning and using every facet of 12-step recovery programs, which includes choosing and working closely with a sponsor to complete the 12 steps, and being personally responsible and active in their "home" 12-step group.
Recovery Method
Based on this principle of learning, the resident learns a task from another, practices until proficient, and then teaches it to someone else. Twelve-step programs of recovery use this practice, as do residents of The Red Road House. It works because the learning cycle never stops - each time someone teaches a task, they learn another aspect of it they hadn't noticed before. Each time they learn a task, they may teach the teacher something new.
Recovery from substance abuse is often lonely and difficult at best. Part of learning daily skills of recovery is giving the gift of those skills to the newer residents, directly or by example.
Wrap-Around Care
Substance abuse is a multi-faceted disease for which there is no single solution. Even the original 12-step program includes a passage concerning help outside the program. The Red Road House spends a great deal of time forging relationships in the community with agencies which can help those residents who want to recover fully. Physical and mental health care, employment counseling, financial advice, and help repairing areas which most people take for granted can be available to those residents who are dedicated to recovery.