Emmaus House serves as an essential stepping stone in the journey of recovery. We desire to see men be strong in their recovery and move on to independent living. 

We believe that the foundation of recovery begins with self and that long-term success requires a safe place and supportive community to help bridge the gap between addiction and independent living. 

The stories of our participants continue to evidence the success of our model and the need for all people to have access to a safe place to recover. 

Hear from one of our participants, Kenny

When I was a kid I wanted to be a mad scientist.

I was interested in things like science and technology and often found myself explaining things to other people, but I tended to get picked on and ultimately didn’t have much of a social life. 

Once I entered high school, I started smoking pot to relax my social anxieties and bring myself a sense of relief. 

When I reached my freshman year of college, I was doing way more drugs than I should have been and stopped going to class. I ultimately dropped out of college and would just go to work, drink, and smoke. 

I had an incident where I drove to pick up a friend with an Aquafina bottle full of vodka in my cup holder. I ended up blacking out, skidding against three parked cars, getting pulled over, and failing a field sobriety test, and ending up in jail for 30+ days. 

The point I realized I should probably stop this cycle was when my daughter was born. I remember holding my daughter for the first time and thinking to myself, “I can’t take care of myself and I can’t provide for you.” 

I came to Emmaus House after another long-term recovery center. Being at Emmaus House helped me get back on track to normalcy and freedom. I went back to school and was accepted into the School of Engineering at NC State. I’m now able to live a life my daughter really respects and appreciates; I keep moving forward and improving toward the person I want to be. 

It’s good to be back on track and moving in the right direction, the direction I wanted to move in for a long time, but don’t know if I could have without Emmaus House. 

You can also watch Kenny’s full story here. To support the recovery journey of more men like Kenny, we invite you to support our mission today!