Open Door Mission Houston

Target demographics: men with co-occurring substance abuse and mental illness and homeless men requiring medical respite care following hospitalization.

Direct beneficiaries per year: 180 clients with substance abuse and 108 patients with mental health medication adherence observation

Geographic areas served: Houston

Programs: The Open Door Mission’s mission statement contains the words “dedicated to transforming the lives of the most severely addicted, destitute, homeless, and disabled men in our community.” To accomplish transformation, we provide services from the moment a man enters our program until he leaves. His time with us is ultimately his decision. There are two questions that we ask upon entry: “How desperate are you to transform your life?” and “Are you willing to put in the work to change your life?” It is up to the man upon entry to determine these answers. He has the opportunity to stay with us and enter into our Career Guidance and sober-living Transitional Living Program upon completion and graduation from the DoorWay Recovery Program. Our faith and evidence based 4 to 7-month residential program is designed to meet the needs of each man who enters our DoorWay Recovery Program. Our core belief is spiritual in nature and we recognize and understand that every man who walks through the gates of Open Door Mission is at a very vulnerable state: mentally, physically and spiritually. Our philosophy is “to meet each man where he is.” This premise is based on clinical research on the stages of change in addiction. They include pre-contemplation, contemplation, action stage and maintenance stage. The curriculum that we use in our Recovery Program is SMART Recovery (Self-Management and Recovery Training) and states “Drug use is an unhealthy, self-defeating behavior that consists of a specific belief that often leads to a repeated chain of behaviors that results in drug use. When the belief is challenged, and behaviors are changed, links in the drug use chain are disrupted and this may decrease the probability of drug use.” The SMART Recovery Program incorporates harm reduction and encourages the men to engage in healthy choices, thus promoting healthy behaviors designed to interrupt the link in self-defeating thoughts and behaviors that could subsequently result in relapse. This is accomplished through Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) and Motivational Enhancement Therapy (MET). Our Recovery Program also includes a vital Social Services Department that is designed to address the physical, mental, and any other personal issues (i.e. medical, dental, legal, child support, back taxes, fines, etc.) that were neglected for the years they were in their addiction. A man who has been abusing substances for many years has typically been neglecting these very important life issues. As frustration builds due to the neglect, abusing substances is the fallback and these issues persist. At the Mission, all of these issues can be dealt with and successfully accomplished during this time. If a man can finish the Mission’s programs, he can graduate with a new lease on life without that mountain in front of him. The Open Door Mission houses an on-site medical clinic operated by Harris County Healthcare for the Homeless, it is available to our clients and the homeless community as an open-access medical clinic and pharmacy. The clinic is staffed five days per week by a nurse practitioner, medical assistant and an eligibility clerk, who verifies the homeless status of our clients and community members who use and require clinic services. Assistance is provided in obtaining the Harris County Gold Card if clients have not yet applied for coverage under the plan. This card provides convenient access to health services and is a first for many clients. It promotes regular health maintenance habits to sustain their recovery and sober lifestyle. Education in the 21st century is a prerequisite for employment opportunity and success. Abusing substances at any age prevents learning and intellectual development from occurring. However, education is power and the first step out of poverty. Open Door Mission requires all men in the DoorWay Recovery Program to complete a designated number of hours of academic education each week (the variance is based on entry level testing) during their 7-months of residency. The goal of computer-based instruction is to become computer literate, and therefore ready for additional academic and technical education or a job. While they are in the program, they write 16 essays using the computer beginning in the first week. Men with the potential to obtain a GED are enrolled in a self-paced curriculum and, with the help of volunteer tutors, can aim for passage of all parts of the examination prior to their graduation from the Mission. Clients are given an educational assessment early in their stay to identify their personal educational grade equivalency level. From that, a customized academic curriculum, with emphasis on their weaknesses, is created for their improvement based on their personal performance. This computerized program is self-paced and available to clients for daily preparation for regular evaluations of their progress. Mission volunteers provide additional support as tutors for clients who need one-on-one drill and instruction to achieve academic progress. Some of our clients with higher education also become tutors to the men who have the need for help. Dr. Stephen Klineberg of the Rice Kinder Institute for Urban Research in his 2018 presentation The Kinder Houston Area Survey states, “By 2020, 65% of all American jobs will require education beyond high school.” This economic reality has led Open Door Mission to establish partnerships with Houston Community College, and technical schools for client admissions in specific adult education programs. Our Career Guidance Program (est. 2017) 3-month program is offered upon the completion of the 4-month Recovery Program into a lifestyle and career that is self-sustaining, meaningful and productive. A trained and experienced career counselor is on staff to work within the Education and Career Guidance Center to guide men in the Phase 2 stage of their DoorWay Program and towards creating a plan for determining their future employment career and how to obtain the education and training required to be successfully hired and retained as a valuable employee worthy of advancement. This process includes computerized software curriculum and activities to prepare for job readiness, support and pre-employment services, job placement, and post-employment services. Due to the economic circumstances of these men, their stay at the Mission continues free of charge as long as they are actively working towards obtaining these skills and earning the ‘meaningful work’, defined as a livable wage with financial and health benefits and personal fulfillment in their jobs. Clients who have the potential to be successful in these programs are identified early in their stay at the Mission and encouraged to work towards building a plan beyond getting a minimum wage job. For those clients who are not able to pursue longer term training or academic pursuits, we also offer the resources of key community partners such as The WorkFaith Connection and Work Force Solutions to help them find the best employment opportunities possible upon the completion of their DoorWay Recovery Program. The Marriott Marquis Hotel in downtown Houston has employed 30 of the Mission’s graduates. The Marriott provides these men fulltime positions with retirement and health benefits. Open Door Mission also provides for our DoorWay graduates transitional housing on campus and at the Mayfield House directly across the street from the Mission. The Mayfield House is a 15-bed apartment available for an undefined period of time to successful DoorWay graduates who are employed but do not yet have permanent housing. Nominal weekly rent includes three daily meals at the Mission and includes full participation in DoorWay activities (work schedule permitting), as well as the creation of a financial savings plan. This is the clients’ exposure to a sober living lifestyle while still a part of a safe, sober, supportive and faith-filled community. Open Door Mission’s most recent opportunity to build both a path to self-sustained employment through technical skills for the men we serve and an alternative revenue stream for the Mission is through Open Door Mission’s catering business, named Open Door Catering (est. 2018). The Mission’s fully equipped commercial kitchen that is used to prepare three hot meals for our men is underutilized at 12 hours daily. It has always been used as a preliminary teaching space to identify men who will be great candidates for culinary arts education after their graduation. With the recent addition to the Mission staff of a fully qualified and experienced Executive Chef and restaurateur, we are now offering full service catering to the general public. Catering candidates to work from the DoorWay Program must be selected and trained by the chef for eventual state and local certifications and eligibility for recruitment in the local restaurant industry, or can be recommended for additional education in the culinary arts and entrepreneurship to become caterers, cooks, and servers in their own right. The successful development of this program can bring more private financial resources to the Mission to support the existing funding pipeline while expanding the employment options to men with an interest in this career path. Growth of this catering business has been beyond all projections. Open Door Catering has served over 4,000 people at 40 events since starting the business in 2018.