Some operate for several years and then, because of expiration of a lease, dissatisfaction with the facilities, or simply the finding of a better location, the members of a particular House will move into a new location. Other Houses often help that type of move as well as the brand new House. In both cases, financial assistance is in the form of a loan having a pay back schedule, not to exceed one year, defined up front.
Each Oxford House member, as an individual, considers himself a member of AA and/or NA. The host received me well, and the facility was beyond my expectation for the price. Fabulous neighborhood, oxford house traditions great facilities, easy to get to and from airport, cheaper than a hotel, no fuss checking in at any time of day. The location was excellent for my conference at the Rocky Mountain Resort.
Resources for Oxford House Members
By the time many of us had stopped drinking, we had lost jobs; we had lost families, and some of us either had no place to live or no place to live which was not an invitation to start drinking again. Oxford House was founded not only to put a roof over our head, but also to create a home where the disease of alcoholism was understood and the need for the alcoholic to stay away from the first drink was emphasized. The bond that holds the group together is the desire to stop drinking and stay stopped. Modest rooms and living facilities can become luxurious suites when viewed from an environment of alcoholics working together for comfortable sobriety. In fact, Oxford House creates an environment whereby each member can more fully realize the benefits available from active AA or NA membership.
The principle of Oxford House replication remains the same since the second Oxford House was created around a nucleus of two members of the first House who were willing to relocate “down the street” – experience is the teacher. The teachers must now be sent hundreds or thousands of miles from home, and they must have the resources to remain with individual Houses and Chapters until the living experience of 20+ years is successfully passed on. Equal Expense Shared (EES) is generally between 80 and 160 dollars a week and includes utilities. Weekly business meetings are mandatory to discuss any issues that the house may be facing. It is at these meetings that checks are written for bills and residents are made aware of where they stand financially. Each House represents a remarkably effective and low cost method of preventing relapse.
House Services
All too often, an abrupt transition from a protected environment to an environment which places considerable glamour on the use of alcohol and drugs causes a return to alcoholic drinking or addictive drug use. During our drinking and drug use years, and even before, many of us found it difficult to accept authority. Many individuals in society are able to abide by the strict letter of any rule, regulation , or law. Alcoholics and drug addicts seem to have a tendency to test and retest the validity of any real, potential, or imagined restriction on their behavior.
- Rabbits often represent fertility and eggs are said to symbolise new life in spring.
- Alcoholics and drug addicts seem to have a tendency to test and retest the validity of any real, potential, or imagined restriction on their behavior.
- Dancers hold on to colourful ribbons which are attached the the top of a large pole and dance in patterns, often to live music played by the village band.
- It also acts as the coordinating body to help individual houses to organize mutually supportive chapters.
In those situations, it is not uncommon for the Oxford House members, at a meeting, to strongly suggest that a fellow member seek professional help. In those situations where a member’s behavior is disruptive to the group as a whole, the member may be required to seek such professional help or more self-help meetings in order to avoid being dismissed from Oxford House. Repayment from those start-up loans assures the continuation of the revolving fund to enable other new houses to get started — just as repayment of loans to chapters permits the same resources to be used again and again.
DePaul University Research on Oxford House
However, there is every reason to believe that recovering alcoholics and drug addicts can do for themselves that which society as a whole has no responsibility to do for them. Oxford House is built on the premise of expanding in order to meet the needs of recovering alcoholics and drug addicts. This principle contrasts sharply with the principle of providing the alcoholic or drug addict with assistance for a limited time period in order to make room for a more recently recovering alcoholic or drug addict. During early recovery for alcoholism and drug addiction, some members had to leave an institution in order to make room for an alcoholic or drug addict just beginning the recovery process. Other members were asked to leave half-way houses in order to make room for a recovering alcoholic or recovering drug addict who was ready to move into a half-way house. Each individual recovers from alcoholism or drug addiction at a different pace.
During the last days of our drinking or using drugs, most of us ceased to function as responsible individuals. We were not only dependent upon alcohol and/or drugs, but were also dependent on many others for continuing our alcoholic and/or drug addicted ways. When we stopped drinking or using drugs, we began to realize just how dependent we had become. For those of us who had been in institutions or half-way houses, resentments against authority were common. Those who have benefited from an Oxford House have acquired enthusiasm for the Oxford House concept. In their enthusiasm, they have been anxious to share Oxford House with any recovering alcoholics and drug addicts who want to establish an Oxford House in their community.
The Board of Directors, maintains the sole right to Charter and revoke the Charter of individual Oxford Houses and exercises authority over the policies and officers of Oxford House, Inc. In this way, Oxford House, Inc. remains responsive to the needs of the population it serves. If you are just visiting the site, just wait a bit and it should be back soon. If you own the web site, please verify with your hosting company if your server is up and running and if they have our firewall IPs whitelisted.
In such a partnership, recovering substance abusers and the communities in which they live bring into existence a tool which prevents relapse in 80% of its members. As the number of relapses drop, the cost of incarceration and homelessness drop; the number of children born with “crack syndrome” drops; the number of drug related crimes drops. The cost to society of drug and alcohol addiction can be measured both in dollars and in human misery. The funding of Oxford House, Inc. is an investment towards reducing that cost. By 1988, the number of individual Oxford Houses had become so great that it became difficult to have a meeting at which everyone would get a chance to speak.