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The Men's Center, Inc.
was chartered in 1958 as a non-profit, charitable educational
organization. The board of directors includes recovering
alcoholics, some with very long-term sobriety who began their
successful recovery at the Center.
In more than 50
years of service to the recovering alcoholic, the Center has
developed a program that works. It provides a place of retreat
from the oppressive and inhuman requirements of life on the
streets.
A physically sick alcoholic, when received into
the Center, spends several days in the "Sick Room." He is
encouraged to rest and read. Three times a day, the new people
in the Sick Room take their meals together in the Dining Room.
Then the new man is introduced to a daily routine which permits
his body to begin to heal, through rest and a regular diet.
Taking care of the body is the beginning of recovery from the
excesses of alcoholism.
The time in the Sick Room affords
the new man an opportunity for solitude and silent reflection on
the hopelessness of his situation. Equally important, if not
more so, it introduces him to the Personalism of the AA
fellowship as it practiced at the Center. Since there are only a
few men in the Sick Room at one time, and since the supervisor
(who is always present) is also an alcoholic, the topic of
recovery through AA is constantly being examined. Other
residents also visit the men in the Sick Room to talk about
sobriety.
The next step for the new person is a move to a
dormitory where he has a bed and storage space for his clothing.
The men share a commons room where they watch TV and play cards.
Because a man has to pay his room and board once a week at the
Center, he goes to the labor pool or another source of
employment. Getting a job and paying rent regularly are part of
the recovery process.
AA meetings are held every morning
in the Center for those who are not at work, and every noon,
afternoon and evening as well. The desire to learn the AA way to
sobriety is encouraged and developed through association with
the other men in the Center. That association enhances the
practice of the Twelve Steps, the Twelve Traditions and the AA
sponsorship among the men at the Center.
The Center
program recognizes the three aspects of alcoholism: physical,
emotional and spiritual. This brief sketch shows the
personalist approach to recovery at the Center. The Center
provides the regular and personal attention to each of these
aspects necessary for the recovering person to regain his sense
of wholeness, his integrity and his hope.
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