Restore Life

About Restore Life

Restore Life is a sober living operator in Richmond, Virginia, running three certified men's recovery residences in the city and in neighboring Chesterfield County. All three hold accreditation through the Virginia Association of Recovery Residences at Level of Support 2 and appear on the state's public register of certified recovery residences.

A Richmond Recovery Housing Provider Led by a Credentialed Peer

Restore Life is led by Al Monroe, a certified substance abuse counselor with over seventeen years of leadership experience who is in long-term recovery himself. That is the organization's defining feature. Decisions about admissions, house rules and discharge are made by someone holding a clinical credential who has also lived on the resident's side of the arrangement, and the houses are run as one program under one set of expectations instead of three separate landlord relationships.

Three Men's Sober Living Homes in the Richmond Area

The portfolio is compact and entirely male:

• Restore Life #1, on 27th Street in Richmond's East End.
• Restore Life #2, at 1801 North 24th Street in Richmond's East End.
• Restore Life #3, at 7708 Lancashire Court in North Chesterfield, in Chesterfield County.

Two houses sit a few blocks apart in the same Richmond neighborhood, and the third is in suburban Chesterfield County southwest of the city. The Lancashire Court house is published with five bedrooms and nine beds. That spread gives the operator something useful: a man who needs distance from the neighborhood he used in can be placed in the county, and one who needs bus access to a job can be placed in the East End.

A Men-Only Recovery Housing Portfolio

Every Restore Life residence serves men, and the state's population fields confirm it at all three addresses. A single-population operator can write one program and run it consistently. House rules, the tone of a house meeting and the way a manager handles a difficult week are all built for the same population, and a resident who transfers between houses meets the same expectations he already knows.

VARR Certification at Every Address

Virginia makes certification compulsory. Operating a recovery residence without a credential is a Class 1 misdemeanor, and only VARR and Oxford House can grant one the state recognizes. All three Restore Life houses appear on the state register of certified recovery residences at Level of Support 2, the Monitored tier. Certification is issued address by address, so an operator carrying it everywhere has committed three separate times to a published ethics code, written disclosure of fees and rules, a documented relapse policy and an external complaint process.

What This Sober Living Operator Provides Beyond Housing

Restore Life describes a program aimed at employment and stability. Living spaces are furnished. Weekly groceries are supplied through donor support. Case management and goal setting run alongside the housing, with job placement assistance and nutritional guidance from a registered dietitian. Clinical treatment stays with outside providers, which is what Level 2 certification contemplates. For a man arriving from a treatment episode or a jail term with no possessions and no employer, the value of an operator is exactly this list.

Applying to This Virginia Sober Living Operator

Applications go to Restore Life, which places residents across the three houses according to what is open and what fits. The questions worth asking at the operator level are about the organization: how long it has housed men in the Richmond area, whether it accepts referrals from Richmond Behavioral Health Authority, the Chesterfield County community services board or the local drug courts, how deposits are documented and returned, and how a complaint moves from the house manager to the operator and then to the credentialing body. A certified Virginia operator should be able to answer each of those without hesitation.