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| Junior Board's Fall Ball a Great Success! | |
 | | Junior Board Members Frederick Volp, Robin Lee, and Jeffrey Kirshenbaum |
Our Junior Board's Fourth Annual Fall Ball was a tremendous success! Over 400 guests filled The Bowery Hotel on November 12th for a wonderful evening of music, raffle prizes, dancing, and cocktails. Over $15,000 was raised to fund life-saving programs that help homeless men and women leave the streets and return to health, homes, and jobs.
Thank you to our Junior Board and Event Host Committee for their hard work and dedication. A special thank you to our beverage sponsors Diageo and Yuengling.
A picture album is posted on Project Renewal's facebook page. We encourage guests to tag themselves and continue to spread the word about Project Renewal!
 | | Junior Board Member Christopher Smajdor (center) with guests |
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| Renewal House Celebrates 40 Years | |
 | | Director Gil Fagiani |
Renewal House celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Located in the Fort Greene area of Brooklyn, Renewal House isn't your conventional transitional housing program. Modeling the Therapeutic Community approach, Renewal House has developed its own independent living community that makes you feel right at home. Residents are given keys and are allowed the freedom to come and go from the house. However, in order to participate in the program, residents are required to have a previous amount of clean time, to participate in treatment groups at our Outpatient Clinic, and to accept job placement with the Times Square Alliance. Responsibility is put on the 25 residents to maintain sobriety and obey the guidelines of the program.
Director Gil Fagiani, who has led the program for 20 years, is inspired by the hundreds of lives he has touched and by something a client once told him, "He said that I saved his life. That when he relapsed, he saw my face, and it brought him back to sobriety."
After 40 years in Brooklyn, Renewal House will be moving to
 | | Construction on the Bronx location of Renewal House is 60% complete. |
the Bronx next year. This will be a big change, as the community has come to embrace and appreciate Renewal House and its residents. "The neighbors treat us like family," says graduate Lance Frankie Tucker. However, Tucker believes that no matter where Renewal House is located, it will continue to be a place that provides men with a chance to get their lives together. |
| Renewal House and Times Square Alliance: A Special Partnership | |  For almost 20 years, Renewal House has been partnering with the Times Square Alliance (TSA) to provide workforce training and development for residents. Among other things, the Alliance provides core neighborhood services with its Public Safety Officers and Sanitation Associates. Up to 20 Renewal House participants work on the Alliance's sanitation team at any given time. We spoke with Tom Harris, the Times Square Alliance's Senior Vice President of Security & Operations.
What is the relationship between the Times Square Alliance and Renewal House?
We have a longstanding, familial relationship with Renewal House. Our sanitation workers come from your program, and we've had phenomenal success with your workers. Our goal is to have people come here with the program [and to hire] a percentage as part-time workers. We have some [Renewal House graduates] as full-time workers, and we even have some who are now supervisors.
What does the Times Square Alliance get out of hiring Renewal House residents?
In many ways we're a perfect fit for Renewal House because Times Square is about reinventing yourself. Times Square had a history with crime and drugs in the 70's. It reinvented itself. With Renewal House, we have people who say that they want to change their lives, and they come here and they're able to change in an area that has changed itself. So to me, it's a perfect fit between a neighborhood that doesn't accept the status quo and wants to change itself, and people who are looking to change themselves.
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| A Life Renewed | |  Howard Kelly, one of Renewal House's 2010 graduates, is among those who have been hired by TSA. He learned about Renewal House at Project Renewal's Third Street Detox location, and started the program on August 31, 2009. He began work with the Alliance the next day, and, in May of 2010, went on the Alliance's payroll as a part-time employee.
Could you briefly describe your experience at Renewal House?
I'm a two-time client, you could say, so my experience this time is of a better, knowledgeable recovery. The program has a lot of structure to allow a person that's recovering to be independent. We have guys that have been together for a little while, so we start to develop a type of unity. And it's recovering a day at a time, you know, it's a recovery process - groups and meals and things like that - and cleaning up [laughs].
What did you like about the Renewal House program?
It's a place to stay that's drug-free, alcohol free, gives us freedom to come and go, be responsible from the start, do some things on your own, and come back and make your appointments. And I like the recovery process that they have. They send us to Times Square Alliance. It's a nice experience because I'm learning something and I'm working at the same time, and it's opened up new ideas.
Why do you think the Renewal House program worked for you?
Right now I'm one year, two months, and three weeks clean and sober, and that's one thing. And the job opportunity, with the aftercare as far as job readiness and learning at the Next Step program. We have outpatient counseling too where we learn everyday living skills. And I like that they have other things to offer as far as after the program. I just look forward to the graduation... maybe being hired full-time at this job, having some independent living, housing - just something safe, clean, and I'm looking forward to my recovery to be ongoing. And the job ongoing [smiles].
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