This #GivingTuesday we want to thank YOU, our donor, for making all we have accomplished this last year possible. Hundreds of men have come through the doors of our Recovery program, hundreds of thousands of meals have been served, and – for the first time in decades – Guiding Light is offering women our life-transforming services.
Congratulations to seven graduates of the Guiding Light Recovery program and Iron House residents for reaching one year of sobriety!
As we approach Thanksgiving, I’d like to share a timely message we received recently at Guiding Light. The note begins: The hardest thing my wife and I have ever done in our lives was dropping off our 34-year-old son, Brandon, at your organization in November 2018.
Addison spent more than a third of his 37 years behind bars, the result of drug use since age 13. When he left prison, he still wasn’t free.
Parris got to the point where “enough was enough” and he reached out for help at Guiding Light. He remembers the specific date – January 19 – just as he remembers what he found here: “A lot of structure. A lot of love. Acceptance, wisdom, knowledge. This place made me stand for something. It helped me not only find sobriety but also find myself as a person who I really am, my purpose in life.”
We often try to avoid the things that make us feel uncomfortable: topics, ideas, or actions that might take us to a scary and vulnerable place, such as DEATH. Most of the men in the recovery program were living a figurative death before coming here, controlled by their substance of choice and delusional thinking. A literal death is a too-familiar reality for those living in addiction.
We look for ways to celebrate the movement and transformation of the men who are living a new way in this world. Check out what our One Year Sobriety Celebration is like in the video below. At the end of May, a group of 5 men will each get a chance to share how their lives are different a full year into abstinence-based sobriety and then hammer their name plaque onto a wall with a hundred other men who have achieved the same milestone.
Eileen Chamberlain is a licensed Master Social Worker and believes in Guiding Light’s mission to provide free substance abuse treatment for all in our community that need it.
On January 17th 2023, 8 men of the Guiding Light Recovery program celebrated a year of continuous sobriety.
This Christmas we were able to feed over 250 men, women, and children of the Heartside community a Christmas dinner. All thanks to our donors, volunteers, and the support of Fifth Third Bank in Grand Rapids. Thank you so much everyone!
Through the guiding light of God’s Spirit, Guiding Light partners with individuals to fulfill their God-given potential through rescue, recovery and re-engagement in the community.
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EIN: 38-2638465 | Non-Profit ID: 402257
