My Nonprofit Reviews

If you are reading this commentary and are considering either going to this facility yourself or sending a loved one, please take the time to read this, as well as the other reviews!!! Prior to actually going to this place myself, I don't think I likely would have believed some of the negative reviews posted about it. I would have thought that many of the harsh reviews detailing awful conduct and conditions MUST be the result of someone who was carrying a grudge for some reason - like maybe a client who couldn't or wouldn't finish the program, who was just mad and bitter toward Recovery Ventures staff or something. Such is often the case when dealing with occasional cases of really negative reviews, after all - especially those coming from a clientele made almost entirely up of addicts and alcoholics. After having been to Recovery Ventures myself, I can EASILY attest to the fact that, believe it or not, the descriptions given in the other one-star reviews are accurate!!! I can also say, with a fair amount of certainty, that the only reason that this place was given so many one-star reviews is simply because giving a "no-star" review is not an option on this website.
I left Recovery Ventures a year and a half ago, during which time I have remained clean and sober of my own accord; not as a result of anything I gleaned from the program. Even now, a year and a half later, the thought of my experience at Recovery Ventures still sickens me, and my heart goes out to any who remain in the program due to a lack of resources on the outside - the fear of which is wielded like a weapon by Recovery Ventures staff to try to dissuade clients from leaving. From the moment you arrive, once your ride has left, they begin stripping you of any form of identity or control. Not only do they take your driver's licence, cash, and any cards you may have, but also you cannot even keep a single piece of paper with even a phone number on it. They don't want you to have the temptation of calling anybody who may come to pick you up or who may be a drug connection, etc. The problem with that is, if you don't have your own mother or father's current phone number memorized (or other close friends or family) you're out of luck. You and your belongings are strip searched, and you are not allowed to keep any clothing you bring unless it is a good several sizes too big. They take any clothing they deem "inappropriate" and "donate it to the warehouse." The warehouse is where they store any clothing and goods taken from clients upon arrival, and later let other clients shop from the stores for free after being in the program for a few months, and the rest they yard-sell! You are NOT allowed to have your belongings set aside to either send home or have someone pick up! This bothered me because I was very careful to pack in the week prior to going, and I followed the instructions on the list dictating what I could bring exactly. Over half my stuff was still taken, many items I bought new for the trip, and I have never seen them since.
If you receive food stamps or are eligible for food stamps, they take them over and garnish them during your stay, and even after if you leave if you're not on top of them from the moment you leave to stop it (like what happened to me). Keep in mind this place gets tons of food donated, gets a couple hundred dollars worth of food stamps per person per month in the case of most clients, AND they're garnishing the wages you earn working for them at local businesses for 16-hour days, weeks on end without a day off. Legally that should include a LOT of overtime pay. Of this money, also keep in mind that you live in a house PACKED in with clients on the outskirts of town (usually 6 clients per small room on bunkbeds) so rent is cheap. Also, one of the main places where you and other clients work every day serves massive amounts of food to their guests (which you prepare, serve, and clean after). While working, you get free meals from the food that is served to the guests, which you can eat on a designated 15 minute break, but if you'd rather smoke, then you don't eat. You cover your own medical and med costs in advance. So where does the extra money or food stamps go? Good question - because even though most clients only required one meal per day at the house, since others were covered at work (if you had time), you are constantly sorting through old, expired food at the house - as if they can't at least afford to get cheap un-expired food!
Your first couple of months there are spent wearing extremely baggy clothes - a belt is necessary, not a fashion statement. You work - LITERALLY, NO EXAGGERATION, 16 hour days with 2 or 3 short cigarette breaks, for often 2-3 weeks without even a single day off. After working, if there is time left, you get to attend one single "group" for one hour, which is lead by another client in the program who has been there for several more months than you. I never saw a medical professional of any form, therapist, nor counselor. Only other peers who had been in the program longer, could take leadership roles, and all is governed by 2 staff members (if in the female house) which themselves are graduates of the program who decided to stay and work. After working your 16 hours and attending group for an hour (which is kind of a messed-up ratio, if you ask me) you arrive at home and do household chores every night, and try to squeeze in a quick bight of food on-the-go, while getting laundry ready to run during the night for the next work day, and grab a quick 8-10 minute shower. After all of this, you're extremely lucky to get 4 or 5 hours of sleep. You certainly do NOT have a set "bed time" to make sure clients get enough rest. Bed time is when all chores are done and you are checked after and ALLOWED to rest. After arriving in the program one afternoon and beginning work the very next morning, by my 14th day in a row working 16 hour stretches doing a good amount of manual labor, with minimal sleep and no day off, I actually fell asleep WHILE WALKING into the work building. Finally they said they'd give me a day off. I was so glad I thought I was going to a least get one solid night's rest. WRONG. I was allowed to sleep a couple hours later than others who left to work like usual, but was then woken up early to do yard work before going to work a night shift!! So my "day off" was actually half a day off, which they used to have me do yard work.
One of the worst experiences I had there, which I totally agree with what other's said about this - was the weekly "conflict resolution group." Where they got the joke of a name for this group, I have no idea, because if anything, this group stirred up more conflict than everything else combined! Every single Tuesday night, every single client is REQUIRED to enter 3 other client's names into a box which gets taken to group the next day. Each person is supposed to not only name 3 other clients with whom they have some sort of grievance, but also berate, pick on, cuss at, belittle, and tease the person whose name was they chose. You are not allowed to refrain from participating, and you cannot say that you did not have a problem with at least 3 people in the house. (If you do, you could get "move-time" - see below). The whole program - men and women both - gather under one roof out in the country, and together listen as each person who had made even the smallest infringement upon the rules is made to stand while violations are read off (each violation of in-numerable rules causes 3 days or more of "move-time" during which you have to stay "on the move" working and doing chores without the short breaks others get). After the violations are listed, men and women's the groups separate. Each of the 2 groups gathers in a big circle with one chair in the middle for clients to sit in, one at a time. Each time someone sits in the middle, anyone who entered that person's name is supposed to "blow up that person's character defects larger than life" while the person sitting in the middle listening to all of this yelling, cursing, and belittling often cries, but is not allowed to respond unless specifically asked to by a staff member. The two staff members, one in particular, had some of the most vulgar, incendiary, and downright nasty things to say to clients. Girls were called b****es, wh**es, c***s, etc. The staff seemed to encourage this type of talk during these groups!! One staff member, who claimed to be a Christian, would often yell G.D. type curses at the girls. I found that to actually be the most offensive, but was afraid to say anything. I've been around, and took part of, plenty of cursing in my life, but it's one thing to flavor your vocabulary, joke around a bit, or vent some frustration, and quite another to use such profanity in what is supposed to be a professional setting and "therapeutic community."
One thing that will always stand out to me is the realization I had that, unlike in almost every OTHER recovery setting I have experienced, where I could ALWAYS pick out one or more people who had something I wanted in life, who were living well, and whose life and behavior after recovery I could look to as an an example, at Recovery Ventures, the opposite occurred!! There was not ONE staff member, male or female, whose lifestyle and/or behavior I felt I would like to embody. Similarly, of those clients who survived months of the program to be given leadership roles, not ONE behaved in a manner I found either respectable or desirable. Once I realized this, I really started taking note of what type of individual and personality characteristics survived the program. The only characteristic which seemed to be pervasive was a lower socio-economic status. I don't mean for that to come across as snobby at all - it's just an observation. It did seem as though those with a higher degree of education, morals, and reasoning skills, were less likely to succeed. Those with less formal education, less question of authority, with more of a follower type of attitude, who seemed to really find personal satisfaction in any type of advantage or authority they could have over their peers, were those who seemed to succeed and thrive in the program. I would say I'm sorry, but it truth I'm not: I could not find anyone whose recovery I respected. I certainly did not want recovery at the cost of my personal beliefs and morality. I couldn't stoop to the level of verbally abusing others and ordering others around to get what I want. It may work there at Recovery Ventures if you're willing to get it that way, but it by NO means in the only road, as they'd like to brainwash you into thinking.
When I was finally fed up with the program, after working as hard as I could, while being as respectful and rule-abiding as possible, I talked to staff about wanting to leave. They try to make you believe you won't be allowed even a single phone call should you want to leave. They also try to make you think no one will want to come get you. You really have to keep a calm, cool, level head to survive there with your wits intact. It's either brainwash and conform, suffer in silence, or escape. And trust when I say, others tried to escape some nights. Luckily I had not burnt all my bridges and was able to have someone come pick me up. I felt badly for some of those I left behind. Some wanted to leave so badly, but had no resources or any way to reach friends or family. Many, many faced either jail or losing their kids if they chose to leave, which when I heard a statistic that something like over 2/3 of the women faced jail if they chose to leave, it's no wonder that some are forced to succumb. I personally would prefer jail. At least there I could get adequate rest, and would actually be in GREATER contact with family and friends by mail or phone than at Recovery Ventures. That's another issue I had with the program. I was told that I wouldn't be allowed to contact anyone on the outside for my first 45-60 days. What I didn't know was that even after being in the program for that long, if you accidentally break too many rules (and small, COMPLETELY, un-intentional breaking of the rules happens ALL THE TIME, for pretty much everybody) your program could be started over. Once you finally get past the first 45-60 day level (which can be extended or re-started depending on your performance) you are allowed to write ONE letter out to a close family member (not a friend or fiance). Before your letter is sent, it is read, and if anything negative whatsoever is written about the program, it will not be allowed to be sent. Once that person writes back, and only if that person writes back, are you allowed ONE 10 minute phone call with that person. That phone call, along with what few others you can earn, is monitored on speakerphone, and again, nothing negative can be spoken about the program. You are told of this in advance. In essence, they give you no room to speak openly or complain about the program without fear of either getting more "move-time" (since speaking ill of the program is against the rules - check your handbook!), or getting your mail or phone privileges taken away. Suffice it to say that if you are reading this and you have a loved one in the program, trust and believe, you won't be hearing the whole story of what is going on for your loved one until they are WELL away from the prying eyes and ears of other peers or staff. That's another thing - you feel so isolated even when in a crowd within the program because everyone has to fend for themselves and staff and the way the rules are structured both discourage having any kind of personal confidence in another client. You are left with no one to confide feelings to without fear that they will be forced into talking about something you may have told them in confidence.
Here's a little example of how easily "move-time" is given out. This is what happened to me. I made my bed before going to work one day like every other day, but that day, while at work, others had to move my bedding and belongings to another bunk bed to make room for another client. While at work, "bed-checks" were done, and I was written up and given 3 days "move-time" for "messy bed" even though I hadn't been the one to re-make the bed. Could I question this ruling? NO, because the proper response for any circumstance that arises is to "just say okay". Client's are repeatedly told to "just say okay." If one person tells you to do something and then another person tells you to do something else which may even contradict the first, what are you supposed to do? I would have thought the answer to this question when posed it by staff would have been to ask a superior staff or peer member which task to do. That answer would've been wrong, according to staff. The correct answer was to "just say okay" to each person and do both tasks quickly, quietly, and efficiently.
If you are okay with just saying "okay" all of the time, while being worked until you're aching, under conditions of sleep deprivation, while having little or no contact with loved ones, and being made to suffer insults and cause others hurt in group, then by all means, hit up Recovery Ventures right away. If not, then please, please be strong, ask around and find a better place to aid with recovery, and don't sacrifice your life and who you are just to "live". Good luck, and prayers to any out there still suffering from addiction or alcoholism. You're not alone, and you are valued, whether some would have you think it or not!!!