By Brian Evans with Emerge Recovery Trade Initiative
Kip Morris owned a long list of fast-growing, lucrative companies in the Midwest when he did something unexpected last year.
During a season of life when other successful business owners are normally looking to retire, Morris took a leap of faith and formed a partnership with two other successful business owners to start a bold and innovative nonprofit endeavor with tons of potential for people in recovery.
Working with Doug Van Dyke and Chris Adams, these three Ohio business owners purchased a county career center in hopes of transforming the massive rural campus into the nation’s first vocational community and trade school for people in recovery and youth aging out of foster care.
Emerge Recovery & Trade Initiative will train clients into industries that are actively searching for qualified help, including skilled trades like plumbing, HVAC, electrical work, and more — as the founders themselves own companies that will put many of them to work immediately.
With addictions on the rise costing taxpayers billions in Ohio amid a massive workforce exodus that’s stretching companies thin, what these men are doing here is almost certain to have implications for the entire state, and perhaps even the rest of the nation.
“We’ve been very blessed in business and in life because of our relationships with God,” Morris said. “We believe we are stewards of the blessings we receive, and we believe this is what we are called to do.”
And why would God call these successful entrepreneurs to help people who struggle with addiction?
Because Kip Morris, Doug Van Dyke, and Chris Adams are in long-term recovery themselves. They fully realize, there’s no retirement age for someone in recovery, so they’re looking to be of maximum service to a population our society would like to seemingly pretend doesn’t exist at times.
As a lifelong journalist in long-term recovery, I find it amazing what God can do when he puts the right people together in the right places. What these men are doing here in Ohio is very similar to what Renew is doing throughout the nation.
As more and more people in recovery work together with increasingly innovative ideas to make things better for the next generation, I believe we might one day be closer to seeing a true “end of the stigma.”
Only then will we truly be able to sell the true appeal of life in recovery to the countless addicts out there on those streets right now, dying from this disease in massive numbers like a plague on our nation.
Recovery truly is the best alternative to that nightmare and it’s all very simple. The opposite of addiction isn’t abstinence. The opposite of addiction is community. And recovery really is the only alternative once someone has been down that dark road of drug addiction. As people in recovery, we stand on the shoulders of giants. Less than a century ago, the 12 steps were founded a couple of hours away from this place. When Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob met for the first time 88 years ago in Akron, they had no idea it would one day become what it has grown into today. The birth of the 12 steps truly changed our world, paving the way for generations of addicts and alcoholics to come together in an all-inclusive setting that embraces people from all faiths, all backgrounds, and all walks of life. Nevertheless, much has changed in the last 88 years.
As new generations of people in recovery emerge, it’s our job to carry the torch and make things better for the next generation. We do that by abiding by these spiritual principles. Instead of self-seeking, we learn to seek how we can serve others.
For more information about Emerge or to support our cause, please visit our website.
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