JT struggled with addiction for many years and his family had all but given up hope. He had lost so much of what had once defined his life.
Fast-forward just 18 months. JT is clear-eyed, sober and standing onstage with a great new job, a new car, a reconciled family, a whole new life and the confidence to give an eloquent speech to an auditorium filled with people. With hardly a dry eye in the room, his six-year-old son, beaming with pride from the front row, suddenly jumps up and yells, “That’s my daddy!”
It is the kind of moment that captures what recovery can restore—not only sobriety, but relationships, confidence, purpose and the opportunity to become present again for the people who matter most.
JT’s story is just one of the transformations HOPE IS ALIVE witnesses every day. Addiction can touch anyone, regardless of wealth, career or socioeconomic status, and for many it becomes a relentless cycle of recovery and relapse. Behind every person struggling with addiction is often a family struggling alongside them, hoping the next phone call brings good news instead of another crisis.
There is Shawn, the high-powered executive hiding the truth of his issues; Julie, a mother and Trevor, a moto-cross champion - each of them struggling with sobriety. Their day-to-day lives looked different, but the devastation is painfully similar. Each one is accompanied by families who desperately prayed for change.
On the surface, recovery can sound simple: stop using and stay sober. Just pull it together. Reality tells a very different story.
More than one million people across DFW are estimated to live with a substance use disorder, while sustained sobriety can remain elusive for many. Recovery frequently requires more than removing drugs or alcohol from a person’s life. It can mean confronting years of pain, broken relationships, unhealthy patterns and lost confidence while learning how to navigate everyday life without returning to old behaviors.
It was that reality that inspired HOPE IS ALIVE.
In 2013, co-founder Lance Lang emerged from a decade-long battle with addiction that had damaged his relationships and derailed his career. Having personally experienced the challenges of recovery and recognizing where traditional approaches sometimes fell short, Lance and his wife, Ally, created something different: a Christ-centered recovery community focused not simply on substance use, but on rebuilding the entire person.
Their vision centered on creating an environment where people could have the time, structure, accountability and support needed to build a fundamentally different life.
In North Texas, DFW residents enter a structured three-phase program that typically lasts 12 to 18 months. The goal goes far beyond abstinence and employment. HOPE IS ALIVE takes a deep dive into root causes while helping residents develop maturity, stability, reconciliation, spiritual growth and practical life skills. In short, the program focuses on what it takes to start again and do it right.
That takes time.
Residents are encouraged to develop healthy routines, rebuild trust and learn to take responsibility for their choices. Progress may be measured in milestones that can appear ordinary from the outside—a first paycheck, a repaired relationship, money in a savings account or a meaningful conversation with a child—but for someone rebuilding a life after addiction, those moments can represent extraordinary progress.
In addition to its long-term recovery homes, HOPE IS ALIVE offers an intensive 45-day program at its state-of-the-art 75-acre Healing Center in Oklahoma. The campus includes organic greenhouses, chefs who help residents understand nutrition and gut-biome health, equine therapy, fitness facilities and a chapel. With a focus on healing the mind, body and soul, the program takes a holistic approach to recovery.
The environment matters. HOPE IS ALIVE deliberately creates homes designed to feel safe and welcoming, often within beautiful communities. The goal is to provide uplifting surroundings where residents can begin the difficult work of rebuilding their lives.
Community inside those homes is equally important.
Addiction often thrives in isolation, while recovery can be strengthened when people feel seen, supported and loved. That philosophy is reflected in HOPE IS ALIVE’s Sunday Night volunteer program, which invites mentors and speakers to gather with residents, share a meal and remind them they are not walking through recovery alone.
Those evenings can provide something residents may have been missing for years: genuine connection without judgment.
For Kerri, a DFW resident who recently celebrated one year of sobriety, that community made a lasting impression. She landed her dream job and, through her hard work, was granted permission to spend meaningful time with her oldest granddaughter.
“The Sunday volunteers were such a powerful part of my recovery,” Kerri shares. “I used to wonder why anyone should give up their time to help me. Now I get it. We are all here to help each other.”
That realization reflects one of the organization’s central ideas: recovery does not happen in isolation. People need people, and families need support as well.
The impact of HOPE IS ALIVE therefore extends beyond those living in its recovery homes. Addiction affects entire families, leaving parents, spouses, children and siblings searching for answers and trying to understand how they can help without losing themselves in the process.
The organization has developed programs specifically to help loved ones navigate those experiences.
FINDING HOPE provides community education and encouragement for families and loved ones of those struggling with addiction. HOPE AFTER LOSS supports people grieving someone lost to addiction. The ministry’s school program works further upstream, helping educate students, parents and teachers before addiction takes hold. These community programs are offered at no charge.
“We believe status and income should not be a barrier to a real desire to start a new life,” Lance says.
That philosophy also helps explain why graduation is treated as an extraordinary milestone rather than simply the completion of a program. It represents months of difficult work, accountability, reconciliation and personal transformation. By the time residents stand before family and friends to celebrate, many have rebuilt parts of their lives they once believed were gone forever.
For a child watching from the audience, that transformation can mean getting a parent back. For a mother or father, it can mean seeing their son or daughter healthy again. For the graduate, it can mean finally recognizing a future that once seemed impossible.
HOPE IS ALIVE does not pretend the past never happened. Recovery cannot erase painful choices, lost years or damaged relationships. Instead, the organization creates a community built around the belief that the past does not have to determine how a person’s story ends.
Perhaps that is why JT’s son shouting, “That’s my daddy!” carries so much meaning.
It was more than a proud child celebrating his father. It was a family witnessing restoration in real time.
In DFW and across the country, people once defined by addiction are becoming employees, mentors, homeowners, parents, spouses and leaders. Families are getting sons and daughters back. Children are getting parents back. And people who once believed their lives were over are discovering something beautifully simple: hope is still alive today.
To learn more, visit HopeIsAlive.net.
HOPE IS ALIVE’s Christ-centered recovery model combines long-term sober living with a three-phase curriculum designed to restore lives and families. With 27 recovery homes nationwide, the program provides practical tools for lasting independence. Its 45-day Healing Center offers intensive holistic recovery, while free community programs provide continued support, prevention, education and hope.
”I came into the program thinking it would be just another box to check, but it’s been the most radical change in my life. I don’t even call it a change, I just feel reborn.” - Terry.