A Hand Up

About A Hand Up

A Hand Up runs recovery housing in Lewiston, Maine, for adults in recovery who are leaving incarceration. The organization is based in Androscoggin County and also operates houses in Augusta, in Kennebec County.

About A Hand Up

A Hand Up, formerly known as Fresh Out, is co-owned by two partners who between them have run recovery and reentry houses in Lewiston and Augusta. A sister company, Second Chances, carries some of the newer residences, including houses in the Lewiston area and in Sabattus. As of the summer the Lewiston house opened, the partners co-owned four houses: the Lewiston residence on Bartlett Street and three others in Augusta.

Recovery, Not Corrections

The organization is described by the Maine press as recovery-focused, providing transitional housing for people coming out of prison who have substance use disorders. It is recovery housing with a reentry population rather than a corrections program, and the model its founders describe is community, structure and accountability under one roof.

Where A Hand Up Operates

The Lewiston house serves both men and women, in separate sides of the same building. Between Lewiston, Sabattus and Augusta, the organization's houses cover Androscoggin and Kennebec counties — two of the parts of Maine where demand for post-release sober housing is heaviest. Its leaders are separately involved in other recovery organizations in the region, including the Augusta Recovery Re-entry Center and the Maine Prisoner Re-entry Network, which are distinct organizations from A Hand Up.

Public Records Behind This Maine Recovery Housing Provider

Maine does not license recovery residences, so the records that establish a sober living operator are of two kinds. One is the business trail behind the houses. The other is voluntary certification of an individual residence through the Maine Association of Recovery Residences, which reviews a house against a published standard and lists it publicly, address by address.

A Hand Up leaves a trail worth reading. Maine newspapers covered the Lewiston opening in the summer of 2022, which fixes the date the partners began housing residents in Androscoggin County and puts their own account of the model on the record. The Bartlett Street building is owned by Able Management, with A Hand Up running the residence inside it, so the landlord and the operator are two different parties. The sister company, Second Chances, holds some of the newer houses. Anyone signing an agreement should know which entity is on the paperwork and which one answers a question about the building.

Questions for a Reentry-Focused Sober Living Operator

The questions that separate operators are different from the ones about a particular house:

1. How long the partners have housed residents in Lewiston and in Augusta, and which houses they run today under each company name.
2. How a referral arrives from a jail, a prison, a probation officer or a treatment provider, and how far ahead of a release date a bed can be held.
3. How the weekly charge and any deposit are documented, what the money covers, and what happens to a deposit when a resident leaves.
4. How a complaint moves past the house itself, first to the operator and then to the certifying body, and who a resident talks to if the answer at the house is no.

Reentry housing carries a further question. Release dates are set by someone else, so ask how the operator handles an arrival that lands on a weekend or with a day's notice.