Ride/ Addiction Awareness - Oxford

This fund is being organized by Stephen and Karen Hardy.  We currenlty live in Belgrade, Maine. 
Stephen is self employed doing home improvement work and also is a Reiki Master and I am self employed as a mental health counselor.

We have both been affected in our lives by addiction and I have worked professionally in the field of addiction treatment. Over the last several years the affects have increased for us personally. Anyone who has loved someone with addictive behaviors knows the powerlessness that comes with it. So, we have decided to contribute to the epidemic to help where we can.

Oxford House is a model of recovery homes, sometimes called sober living homes, that has been very successful since its inception. From The Oxford House website:

“The first Oxford House was established in 1975 in Silver Spring, Maryland. From the beginning the group rejected ownership of any property and continues to rent – not purchase – single-family houses in good neighborhoods to establish new Oxford Houses. In the years between 1975 and 1988, eighteen Houses were established by and for recovering individuals. The principles of replication and guidelines for running a group home for recovering alcoholics and substance abusers embodied in the Oxford House Manual had become institutionalized in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area and in 1987 a house for ten men was rented in Bethlehem, PA.”

Funds are limited from beginning stages of addiction treatment through to maintenance stage of change and recovery. Here in Maine, there are several Oxford Houses that are helping those recovering from addictive behaviors return to and maintain sobriety while returning to contributing to society.

The Surgeon General recently published a report about addiction. For the full report , you can follow this link:

Below is an excerpt, from Chapter 5 of that report about recovery and what is working. Oxford Houses are listed among the tools and resources proving to be very successful to maintain recovery.

“A leading example of recovery-supportive houses is Oxford Houses, which are peer-run, self-sustaining,
substance-free residences that host 6 to 10 recovering individuals per house and require that all
members maintain abstinence.99 They encourage, but do not require, participation in 12-step mutual aid
groups. A randomized controlled trial found that people with severe substance use disorders who were
randomly assigned to live in an Oxford House after substance use disorder treatment were two times
more likely to be abstinent and had higher monthly incomes and lower incarceration rates at follow up
2 years later than similar individuals assigned to receive standard continuing care.” P. 5-11

We have contacted Elaina George as she has been successful in opening an Oxford House in Kennebec county and who has plans to open 10 more houses in Central Maine in the coming year.

Stephen and I will be riding our bikes (bicycles), sharing information about addiction along our ride (see map of route) and raising money for Oxford Houses to support recovery efforts of men and women in Maine.

This page is dedicated to raising funds for this stage of recovery and we are also including fundraising for resources for the Maine Alliance for Addiction Recovery in Augusta Maine to provide funds for Narcan education and distribution.  See that campaign here .

We invite others to ride with us and encourage support in raising funds for these causes. This can be done by completing the short application included on this page. (coming soon)