Does anybody out there have any experience with the Delancey Street Reentry program? I've researched it online a bit and it looks like an amazing program. I'd love to hear success (or failure) stories from that program, because my husband and I would like to start up a program similar to it.

do a search here on PTO... we have some information about it. We had a g2g there a couple of years ago.. folks from FL, MA, MI and KS as well as CA members joined in for dinner and learned a lot about the program.

Good luck to you.. we need more programs like this out there!

Yes I know two people that went through Delancey Street in San Francisco, CA. One of them was a Girl that I grew up with and believe me she was MESSED up before she went through that program. She was a Crack Head who became a hooker out on the streets. She was very very violent and Unpredictable. I was very good friends with her younger brother growing up and saw it all. I mean everything that she put her family through. She was gone for more than 2 years. While she was gone she couldnt have contact with ANYONE not even family for at least 6 months. After the 6 months she choose to only contact with he family which was good. I think that she has been back here for at least 10 years now and is totally clean. Her life isnt perfect but I believe that has the tools now to be able to deal with challenges in life that she didnt before. She has been an office manager now for several years and runs a successful buisness. We are from the Monterey Area so it is a small town and everyone knows everyone around here and to be able to bounce back from that type of history is a big deal.
The person I know married a friend of mine. He was in and out of prison for many years and now he is a successful carpenter. He is a very sweet man and you would never know that he ever had any issues with drugs. :)

I had dinner at their restaurant when I was in San Francisco a couple of years ago and talked to a couple of their clients about it. They gave it high marks and were appreciate of the newspaper article one of our local paper's traveling journalist's had written on it. The food and atmosphere was pretty good. Some the of the waiters didn't exactly have hospitable demeanors and my husband kept kidding me that I'd better not make any special requests (which I am prone to doing).

I went home and looked at their website and discovered the different programs, some in different states, such as a pottery plant in New Mexico, a Christmas greenery farm, bookstore, etc. It is pretty strict and a two yr. committment, I believe, but like the client said, it is for people who have hit rock bottom and are ready to change.

You go, sandalsgirl!

Does anybody out there have any experience with the Delancey Street Reentry program? I've researched it online a bit and it looks like an amazing program. I'd love to hear success (or failure) stories from that program, because my husband and I would like to start up a program similar to it.


Have you begun this program yet? Where are you looking to start this program? Will it be faith-based?

My son graduated from Delancey, it's an amazing program. It is not faith based, it is built on the concept of one person helping another. The program deals as much with the personality of an offender as it does with addiction, teaching coping skills, good habits like getting up to go to work, etc. The sad part is that my son graduated from that program 9 years ago, and was clean with no police contact until one year ago, when his marriage got rocky he went back on drugs and is in prison. I talked to him about it and he said that what he realizes went wrong is that he did not stay involved with his recovery, that when he started having problems with his wife, he had no network to turn to to avoid going back on drugs, he said he knows now that sobriety is a lifelong struggle, and no program no matter how good will keep you sober for life

I have to agree! I relapsed after about 10 years clean (with NO network). I was just released not even a month ago from doing a 5 year bid. 2 of those years I was in the Therapuetic Community (Behavioral & Drug Program). I know now I have to live one day at a time and reach for help when I am struggling, no matter what!!

Several people who I have..."contacted" over my career have gone to Delancey. By all accounts it is hard to get into, and hard to complete, but highly successfull. If you are looking for a non faith-based program, this is probably the best out there. If you are comfortable with something spiritually based, Teen Challenge is great as well.

Good luck!

The outstanding thing about Delancey is that it is completely supported by people who are in the program and through the help of private donors. There is no government money going to it, so it's not a program that some rip-off private company is running just to get the goverment $$. They have their own moving company, chauffeur service, restaurant, auto repair shop.
I don't know how hard it is to get into these days, when my son went he had to wait about 45 days for a bed. Is it hard to complete? My son said it was the hardest thing he had ever done...

I don't know how hard it is to get into these days, when my son went he had to wait about 45 days for a bed. Is it hard to complete? My son said it was the hardest thing he had ever done...

Thanks for the comment. How long ago was your son in the program and do you know what were some of the things he found so hard?

It is a minimum 2 year program. It is highly structured with strict rules. You start out with the crappiest job like cleaning bathrooms or sweeping floors, you have to be up early and be responsible and accountable. As time goes on they get a better job placement, but they have to wait a long time to see or call their loved ones. My son, like most people who have substance abuse problems, was used to making his own rules, not following someone elses. This place is run by ex-cons who can sense when a person is being real with them, and they won't accept any BS or excuses. Each new resident has a mentor (a long time resident) who will serves as a guide, and also confronts them if they are trying to 'game' the system. I think that to make the commitment to stay for two years, a person really has to have reached a 'bottom' and believe that the program can help them, it's just not a country club..
http://www.delanceystreetfoundation.org/ourstory.php