In the 1990s, transitional housing began, well, transitioning out of fashion. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, transitional housing is defined as a project that has as its purpose facilitating the movement of homeless individuals and families to permanent housing within a reasonable amount of time — usually 24 months. Such […]
Faced with five life sentences, inmate finds redemption
December 4, 2012 By
I used to be an over-the-road truck driver. Have you ever found yourself driving at night on a long unfamiliar stretch of highway in a place you’ve never been? After miles and miles, the reality that you’re lost sets in; by then, you’ve been lost for so long you can’t recall how many miles and […]
Movie to open in August ‘Step Away From The Stone’ offers hope and recovery
November 20, 2012 By
When actress Karen McCann put out a casting call for her new movie, Step Away From The Stone, 300 actors and would be actors, diverse in both age and race, showed up at Little Rock’s Rep theater for tryouts. McCann, who heads Rock Productions, a movie production firm, chose 150, and the shooting began three […]
Recovery Central offers 20 meetings a week
November 6, 2012 By
By David Palmer Shortly before noon on a sunlit day in May, men and women began gathering at the “Recovery in the Daylight” Narcotics Anonymous (NA) 12-Step meeting at Recovery Central, a new Little Rock facility mainly for NA meetings. More about the “Recovery in the Daylight” meeting in a minute. First, some background on […]
Vietnam war vet overcomes opiate addiction, Pioneers local Cocaine Anonymous meetings
October 16, 2012 By
By David Palmer Cocaine addicts are a special breed. That’s what Norith Ellison says. And he should know. Ellison, 60, is a recovering cocaine addict who has been clean and sober for 21 years and started the state’s first Cocaine Anonymous (CA) meeting in Little Rock in 1989. Widely known and respected in the community […]
Lois Wilson Story: When Love is Not Enough
October 9, 2012 By
The Biography of the cofounder of Al-Anon By William G. Borchert Picture if you will, eight women parked in front of the Clinton Street Brooklyn home of Bill and Lois Wilson. Their motors are running and they are steamed. On this night in 1938, their husbands, most of them newly sober, are attending a meeting […]
Managing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: 12-Step programs and Vet Centers will help
October 9, 2012 By
“On March 4, 2007, combat veteran Chris Dana, put a .22 against his head, muffled it with a comforter and ended his life as quietly as a book drops. He had PTSD and didn’t get the help he needed.” These deeply affecting words were written by Eric Newhouse, a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, in his […]
In Search of the Transformed Life and the Blessings of Recovery
October 7, 2012 By Leave a Comment
By David Palmer Let us agree at the outset that the United States has a huge substance abuse problem. “On any given day,” Joseph A. Califano Jr. writes in his book High Society, “100 million Americans are taking some stimulant, antidepressant, tranquilizer or painkiller; smoking; inhaling from aerosol cans or glue bottles; or self-medicating with […]
Memoirs of a Runaway
October 2, 2012 By
CEO looks back on his life as a troubled teen By Michael Kennon Outskirts Press $10. 95 Remembering vividly his own pain, shame and isolation as a runaway from age twelve to early adulthood, CEO Michael Kennon hopes his story will let the untold thousands of runaway children in the U.S. know that if he […]
