by Brandon Orr, Manager
During the holidays last year, we had the opportunity to take dinner at all 13 Oxford Houses in our area. This was incredibly special to me. I had the privilege of starting my road to recovery from Oxford House in 2018 where I learned a lot about how to really live my life on a day-to-day basis.
While at Oxford House, I held a position where I was able to mentor each house as they were learning how to live differently. Oxford is a network of clean and sober houses and each house is democratically run and self-sufficient. Oxford allowed me to fully know what I wanted to do with my life as I ventured out to find a career. In helping each house and really getting to know the members and learning how to provide help to those wanting a new way of living, I realized I wanted to pursue my peer support certification.
I haven’t lived in Oxford House for over two years now, but I will never forget what it was like to be brand new to recovery and I will always remember how much I grew while I was there. That’s where the idea to take dinner to all of the houses came from. I remember how hard it was seeing guys who didn’t have a family to spend the holidays with. So, that’s what we did, we took lasagna and all the fixings to each Oxford House on Christmas Eve and surprised them with a meal they could enjoy together as a house. OMGOSH, it was not only amazing to be in a place to do such a thing but to see my peer’s faces and the gratitude they had was beyond measure.
We have decided to make this a Reclaiming Lives/Recovery Café tradition and will be providing dinner to the Oxford Houses on Christmas Eve this year as well.
I love my job and I just love people.
