Success Stories: Herb

"The streets raised me and prison was my life. I wanted to change, but didn't know how.  For many years, I thought that drugs and alcohol were my only problems. At The Providence Center, I learned that I was wrong. They taught me how to get in touch with my feelings. They helped me believe that I deserved a better life."

Herb battled drug addiction and was in and out of prison for nearly 30 years. Each time he was released, he landed back on the streets - without a job, without money, without a place to live, turning again and again to drugs to solve his problems.

Herb had tried recovery programs but decided that they didn't work as well as hiding behind the brick wall he had built around himself. Recovery programs were short-term.  His brick wall was permanent. He could hide behind it and feel safe. But all that changed when his little sister died from a drug overdose. Herb had lost three other sisters from drug-related causes.  He didn't want that to be his legacy. 

The staff at The Providence Center's Long-term Substance Abuse Residential Treatment Program taught Herb that his brick wall was stopping him from finding recovery and that, if he was to get better, he needed to feel safe outside it. At The Providence Center, Herb learned skills that would help him to lead a substance-free life, and brick by brick, his wall came down.  

Today, Herb goes to court just as he has for over 30 years, but now he doesn't go in handcuffs and he doesn't go for the same purpose.  He goes in a suit and tie and talks to young kids about recovery. He shows by example how they can turn their lives around. With each life he touches, Herb creates a new legacy, a legacy built on the lives of the kids he's helped to save.