Helping People Go Home, Nashville, TN

by Rebecca Stoll

Welcome Home Ministries is a Nashville faith-based organization which operates transitional and permanent supportive housing programs for men overcoming substance addiction. They will celebrate 20 years of serving chronically homeless men with a history of substance addiction in December of this year.  With the opening of two new recovery homes, the agency increased its capacity to serve by 62% in 2012. One of these homes is dedicated to serving veterans and is the first of its kind in the state.

The agency recognized that treatment programs were a crucial first step on the road to recovery from a lifetime of addiction. Welcome Home provides specific long-term recovery support services for clients’ needs in an effort to support progress made on their recovery journey towards sustainable sobriety, self-sustainability and spiritual wholeness. Welcome Home’s recovery residences ingredients for success include:

• A faith-based approach that incorporates the 12 –Step model of support
• Close relationships with healthcare professionals and mental health treatment facilities in Middle Tennessee to assist clients with physical and mental healthcare needs
• Eligibility for independent living in a sober-living community of permanent supportive housing for clients who graduate from an alcohol and drug recovery support program
• New permanent supportive housing residents must be “voted in” by current residents, maintain a healthy sobriety and demonstrate self-sustainability

“It is powerful to see the progress of men who become whole again after 15, 20, 25 years of living with addiction,” says Kyle Duvall, Director of Operational Advancement. “We are able to help guide and support them through the process of recovery during their journey towards wholeness.”

The agency’s primary challenge is raising awareness around the issue and the programs designed to help individuals in need of recovery from alcohol, drugs and a destructive way of life.