Journey House Recovery

About Journey House Recovery

Journey House Recovery is a non-profit operator of recovery residences based in Sanford, Maine. Its houses sit in three counties — York, Androscoggin and Cumberland — across the southern and central parts of the state. The organization describes itself as a 501(c)(3) non-profit that runs low-barrier, peer-run recovery houses, and it states that it supports multiple and diverse pathways to recovery, including medication-assisted treatment.

About Journey House Recovery

Journey House Recovery began in late December 2016, when its founder opened a men's residence in Biddeford. A men's house in Sanford came six months later, and a women's house in Sanford three months after that — the first recovery house for women in York County. In May 2018 the organization opened Androscoggin County's first recovery house, and in January 2019 it opened a women's house in South Portland.

The organization is a registered 501(c)(3) charity. Day-to-day work in the houses is carried out by house managers, with an executive director and a board of directors behind them. Journey House Recovery is a member of the National Alliance for Recovery Residences and a registered affiliate of the Maine Alliance for Recovery Residences.

Homes Operated by Journey House Recovery

Journey House Recovery operates four recovery residences across Maine:

• a men's house in Sanford, York County
• a women's house in Sanford, York County
• a men's house in Lewiston, Androscoggin County
• a women's house in South Portland, Cumberland County

Each house has its own character and its own town, but they are run as one organization, under one set of house expectations, and applications are handled centrally rather than house by house.

Life in a Journey House Residence

Low barrier is the organization's own term for its approach. Journey House Recovery states that it supports multiple and diverse pathways to recovery, including medication-assisted treatment, rather than requiring residents to follow a single program of recovery.

Residents are required to abstain from alcohol and other illicit drugs. Beyond that, the central expectation is participation in ordinary working life: residents are expected to obtain and maintain employment, be enrolled in school, or volunteer their time to the community, and the organization notes that many do all three. There is no fixed end date to a stay — residents may stay as long as they wish. Staff support residents in finding employment, healthcare and social services, and help with the transition to more independent living when a resident is ready to move on.

Certification and Standards

Journey House Recovery states that all of its houses are certified by MARR, the Maine Association of Recovery Residences, and that they adhere to the evidence-based standards set out by NARR, the National Alliance of Recovery Residences. The organization is a NARR member and a registered MARR affiliate.

Its Lewiston men's house, its two Sanford houses and its South Portland women's house were each listed as MARR-certified residences in a July 2020 Maine recovery residence directory, which recorded the organization's houses by town and by the population each one serves.

Sober Living Across Southern and Central Maine

The four houses cover a broad slice of the state's most populated corner. Sanford, where the organization is based, is a York County city in southern Maine with two Journey House houses, one for men and one for women. Lewiston, on the Androscoggin River in Androscoggin County, is home to the men's house that opened in 2018. South Portland, on the southern shore of Portland Harbor in Cumberland County, holds the women's house that followed in 2019.

For someone leaving treatment, leaving a hospital, or simply trying to hold on to early recovery without a stable place to sleep, that spread matters: a person can look for a Journey House bed in the York County towns, in the Lewiston area, or in Greater Portland without leaving the organization's program model behind. All four houses serve adults in recovery from substance use disorder, and all four accept residents who are on medication-assisted treatment.