About Us

A Unique, Transformative and Sustainable Path to Recovery In A Drug Free Collaborative Living Environment.

Our Mission

Awakening Recovery provides a structured, life-changing path to sustainable recovery for people with chronic drug and alcohol addiction, offering access with no financial barriers.

Our Vision

To be a beacon of hope for those who suffer from drug and alcohol addiction and a proven model for long-term recovery, locally and nationally.

What Is Awakening Recovery?

Our Story

Awakening Recovery’s vision emerged out of 35+ years of collective recovery home experience in Los Angeles. In 2015, a group of individuals joined forces to develop a non-profit solution like the ones that saved their own lives. In July 2016, AR opened a recovery home for men in West Los Angeles. Our community’s increasing need for recovery support coupled with the successful impact of the Men’s House compelled us to design a parallel experience specifically for women facing substance addiction. We successfully opened our Women’s House in February 2023 a little over a year later we have several residents that have become our first members of the Women's House graduate community. Together, both houses enable us to help approximately 70 people annually begin their journey towards awakening to a sustainable recovery solution that works.

Our Community Values:

  • Integrity: We believe rigorous honesty and accountability are essential to all we do.
  • Learning: While our guiding principles are universal and based on the spiritual principles of the 12-Steps, we believe in evolving and adapting our methods as we learn.
  • Common Purpose: Because we have a common problem with alcoholism and drug addiction, we believe our community is connected by a common solution in recovery.
  • Action-driven: We believe successful recovery requires consistent action to change our behavior, which signals willingness to transform our lives.
  • Service: We believe in giving back to the community that saved our lives and seek to be a multiplying force for good in the world.

Increased Community Need:
For those seeking a long-term recovery solution, the need for affordable and oftentimes scholarship based recovery support coupled with renewed connections to community has never been more critical.  There is a lack of pubic funding, support and access to "drug free" recovery housing in Los Angeles and CA, so AR provides a lifeline to those seeking a sustainable abstinence based recovery solution for their chronic and acute substance addiction.

At AR, we believe it takes longer than the 30-90 days of clinical substance addiction treatment to change a lifetime of maladaptive behaviors, deeply embedded beliefs, and identity associations. LA is home to many recovery options; some options are driven by philosophy, some by profit, and some simply by what insurance will cover. Research shows the longer someone seeking recovery stays in the same recovery location, with the same people in the same process, the better their chances of maintaining sustained recovery.

Our Unique Approach:
AR stands apart as the only nonprofit "drug free" recovery home option with a year+, 12-Step based, and highly structured long-term focus on behavioral change via peer mentoring in LA. Awakening Recovery offers scholarships to residents with financial need, and over 90% of our residents come into the house financially destitute. By creating deep, meaningful connections and community in a drug free collaborative living environment, this unique structured, high impact peer mentoring recovery process interrupts and redirects self-sabotaging behavior, establishing healthy routines and building new coping skills while residents begin to address past traumas and start to the healing process of their dysfunctional family dynamics.

AR residents have access to mental health, medical, and dental needs through our nonprofit referral, scholarship and MediCal-based community partners. AR has developed partnerships with like-minded professionals willing to help our residents without financial barriers. AR also partners to offer a variety of health and wellness such as physical training, mindful meditation, and active breathwork meditation as well as volunteer peer mentoring and skill-building activities for residents.

The active involvement of AR’s alumni support community serves as powerful and tangible proof to residents that long-term recovery is attainable, providing an added layer of support and inspiration on their own journeys.

Being 12-Step based a crucial part of our year+ plus process is to help our residents experience a transformative spiritual awakening as a result of their 12-Step process combined with the connections and community building derived from other residents, our alumni support community and staff.

Our Unique Approach and Process

Our first women’s house 2024 graduate, Rachael and her son and graduate Tyler who just celebrated 5 years sober!

Our Non-Profit Community Partners:
AR residents have access to mental health, medical, and dental needs through our nonprofit referral, scholarship and MediCal-based community partners. AR has developed partnerships with like-minded professionals willing to help our residents without financial barriers. AR also partners to offer a variety of health and wellness such as physical training, mindful meditation, and active breathwork meditation as well as volunteer peer mentoring and skill-building activities for residents.

Volunteer Alumni Support Community:
The active involvement of AR’s alumni support community serves as powerful and tangible proof to residents that long-term recovery is attainable, providing an added layer of support and inspiration on their own journeys.

Our alumni support community provides tangible proof to our current residents that transformative and sustainable recovery from chronic and acute substance addiction is possible through:

  • Sponsoring residents in their 12-Step process while mentoring them through the house process that they have successfully completed
  • Leading weekly peer house meetings focused on their different phases of development in the house through their lived experience
  • Attending weekly house meetings, meals, internal and external house activities and trips, and taking residents to their daily 12-Step meetings.

All of the above helps our alumni stay connected to the community that helped them get sober that also helps them stay sober through demonstrating a service driven life in recovery.

Transformative Spiritual Awakening:
Being 12-Step based is a crucial part of the success of our year+ plus and enables our residents to experience a transformative spiritual awakening as a result of their 12-Step process combined with the connections and community building derived from other residents, our alumni support community peer mentoring and staff with lived sober experience.

Target Population:
AR’s Men’s and Women’s Houses focus on serving the most vulnerable who are struggling with chronic and acute substance addiction, have low or no income, experiencing housing insecurity resulting from their substance addiction, who have been formerly incarcerated and/or are looking for an alternative to incarceration, who have co-occurring mental health issues, BIPOC, as well as members from the LGBTQ community and transitional age youth 18-26. As a non-profit organization, 90+ percent of our revenue comes from private donations and grants with less than 10 percent coming from resident contributions or public funding.

Impact & Results To-Date

  • Since its founding in 2016, AR has already helped over 200 residents on their journey to recovery. In 2023, AR served 32 residents seeking addiction recovery support in our Men’s House and 38 residents in our Women’s House. Over 40% of our alumni came into the house as transitional age youth 18-26. Now with both houses, we are able to serve over 70 residents annually.
  • AR continues to see increasingly promising results for residents who progress through the process. Over half of residents who stay at least 30 days, stay for six months; over half who remain for at least six months, stay to graduate, have jobs, and move out with other graduates for a minimum of one additional year. To date, over 70% of AR’s graduates have remained sober since graduation and over 80% have maintained over a year of continuous sobriety.

Take A Tour

The House

  • Centrally located in West Los Angeles near public transportation, 12-Step meetings, social services, restaurants and markets
  • We have great non-profit referral relationships with wellness, physical and mental health resources for residents to utilize during their stay with us
  • 5 bedroom 4.5 bath house helping up to 16 men at a time find a long-term recovery solution
  • Staffed by men in recovery to mentor our residents based on their own lived experience in recovery
  • Utilizes AR alumni to sponsor men in their 12-step process that runs parallel to the lasting behavior change driven structure of the house.

Board of Directors

Our Board of Directors team share a common bond of commitment to our mission and help strategically lead our organization to improve its effectiveness and broaden its reach in the recovery community and those that love and care about them.

Robert Daly, JR.
Board President

Robert has been working in the financial services industry for over 20 years and previously worked in the entertainment industry. He co-founded Awakening Recovery in 2016 with David Van Der Velde and serves as the President of the Board at Awakening Recovery.

Ken Mariash, JR.
Board Secretary

Ken has nearly 20 years’ experience in marketing, leading, and growing new businesses and is currently the VP of Marketing at EBT Medical, and serves as the Secretary of the Board at Awakening Recovery. 

Jonathon Aubry
Development Chair

Jonathon is a marketing, entertainment and fundraising leader with 20+ years of business development, fundraising, marketing and brand partnership experience, and runs his own strategic advisory firm, AUBRY & CO. He also serves as the Development Chair of the Board at Awakening Recovery.

David Van Der Velde
Executive Director

After spending 25 years producing large-scale corporate events for the sports, entertainment and nonprofit sectors, David co-founded Awakening Recovery in 2016 with Robert Daly, Jr., and serves as the Executive Director and board member of Awakening Recovery.

Austin Gibbons
Alumnus Member

Austin is a graduate of Awakening Recovery, who was in the house during the first month it was open. He now has over four years sober. This unique perspective is an important additional voice on the board. After graduating from the house, Austin went back to school to finish college, graduated with a bachelor degree and is pursuing a career in marketing and data science.

Claudine Andrews
Alumnus Parent Member

Claudine has over 20 years experience in the entertainment industry, with a focus on music and film productions, and is also the mother of our graduate Patrick who now has over 2 years sober. Both of these perspectives are vital to our organization on a Board level, especially as we expand our scope to include a women's house.

Jody Weinberg
Member

Jody is the Vice President, Business Affairs & Legal Counsel for Pixar Animation Studios, where she has worked for over 25 years. She serves as a board member at Awakening Recovery.

Kelly Wu
Member

Kelly has nearly 10 years of experience working in the treatment industry. Motivated by her own experience with recovery, she has pursued multiple clinical positions throughout her career, currently she is a practicing Social Worker and the Executive Director at Grace Recovery.

Dia Parsons
Member

Dia has worked in recovery since 2007, providing practical and emotional support and guidance to clients for their return to a fully functional life. As a Certified Drug and Alcohol Counselor with a CADC-II, she has served the community at large in several specialties, such as Tech Supervisor, Intake Coordinator, Director of Admissions, Director of Clinical Outreach and Business Development at Avalon Malibu, and now, Partner & CEO of Alegria Collaborative

Wendy Slavkin, Esq.
Member

Wendy brings a rich history of nonprofit leadership having served on other substance addiction recovery Boards over the past over 25 years to the Board of Awakening Recovery.  The Law Offices of Wendy L. Slavkin has deep expertise that is well respected in Southern CA with active involvement with local non-profit and charitable organizations. Wendy is also an avid public speaker on the topic of Substance Abuse in the Legal Profession.

Jim Murphy
Emeritus Founding Board Member

Jim has over 20 years of finance leadership experience and is the Chief Operating Officer of See Tickets North America, and serves as the Treasurer of the Board at Awakening Recovery. 

Bill Resnick
Emeritus Founding Board Member

Non-Profit Board and Executive leadership experience Psychiatrist, with experience in the field of Addiction Philanthropy and Foundation leadership experience.

Staff

Our Staff are the glue that holds together the operations of our collaborative living environments in the houses through their own lived experience in substance addiction recovery both with the residents and our alumni support community. They daily demonstrate how a service driven life in recovery is possible and through their love and commitment guide our residents towards a transformation of mind, body and spirit during their time with us. They are an amazing collaborative team that is vital to our success.

David Van Der Velde
Executive Director

David got clean and sober when he was 19, close to death from his own struggles with addiction. Now 32 years clean and sober, he has been consistently active in his recovery community being mentored and mentoring others, served on recovery and youth related non-profit Boards such as LifeWorks and the West Hollywood Recovery Center, and served on panels at institutions speaking from his own experience about recovery.

Greg Gelber
Director

Greg was our first employee and has been with us since 2016. He started out as our first house manager having successfully graduated a similar recovery home process several years prior himself, moved up to Director of Operations and at the beginning of 2023 was promoted to Director. Greg is a vital leader in our organization and sober community. Greg recently celebrated 11 years of sobriety and has gone back to school to get his masters degree to become a mental health and substance addiction clinician. He is evolving as our organization is and we couldn’t be happier for him.

Aida Richey
Senior Women's House Manager

Aida helped us open our women’s house in February of 2023, leads our house staff team and guides our residents through their recovery process in the house as its Senior House Manager. Aida has managed another recovery home prior to coming to us and recently celebrated 9 years of recovery herself. Aida’s natural leadership skills, integrity, and passion for helping others find their path to recovery makes her perfectly suited for this position.

Elijah Lindsay
House Manager

Eli is a graduate of Awakening Recovery, served as our Assistant/Weekend Manager, and has been promoted to House Manager. Eli’s having been a resident in this house makes him the perfect mentor for resident issues that come up as he has the same lived experience.

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