We have at least two recovery meetings daily on premises (to see our meeting schedule, please double click on the PDF file below) and require attendance of our residents at a number of these meetings per week. We also have an active alumni group whose members make it a point to regularly attend meetings at Charlie’s and take time to personally meet and talk with our residents both before and after meetings.
Our experiences have shown that regular attendance at AA meetings is of such importance in early recovery that it is one of the few requirements we have for one to remain living at Charlie's. It is where friends, old and new, gather to talk, laugh and share their stories from when they were still “on the streets,” and also of the new way of life that was afforded them while living at Charlie’s. These conversations always seem to include updates for their friends of how they are managing today in the “real world.”
A number of previous residents have shared with us that while listening to “The Winners” share their stories of recovery, they identified so closely with the events in the speaker’s past that it was easy to believe they were getting a “glimpse” into their future, when his new friend spoke of the independent sober life lived today.
Others have shared with us that while living at Charlie’s, they had many conversations with men who successfully moved on from Charlie’s. What they discovered from talking with these men was “living proof” of an existence these residents no longer thought was possible for them: proof that they could again live a productive life that included a measure of financial security, and do so while maintaining their sobriety.
