Phoenix House is a nonprofit drug and alcohol rehabilitation organization operating in ten states with 150 programs. Programs serve individuals, families, and communities affected by substance abuse and dependency.

History

Phoenix House was founded in 1967 by six heroin addicts who met at a detoxification program in a New York hospital. They were concerned about staying clean after detoxification, so they moved into a brownstone on Manhattan’s West Side and lived together as a sober community. Psychiatrist Mitchell S. Rosenthal, M.D. and counselors from New York City’s Addiction Services Agency (ASA) soon incorporated structure and treatment programming into the community. As deputy commissioner of ASA for rehabilitation, Dr. Rosenthal made Phoenix House the model for a citywide treatment network. Phoenix House played a role in creating the country’s first correctional treatment unit, a model now widely replicated in prisons throughout the country and abroad. Phoenix House was also an early provider of treatment as an alternative to prison. In 1983, Phoenix House opened its first Phoenix House Academy, a residential high school where teens receive substance abuse treatment as well as daily on-site academic education. Eleven Phoenix House Academies now operate in seven states and have been designated a “model program” by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2005. The organization is funded mostly by government contracts

Government contracts

Government procurement in the United States is based on many of the same principles as commercial contracting, but is subject to special laws and regulation as described below....

, but also receives philanthropic support for a portion of its $100 million annual budget. In addition to residential treatment, Phoenix House’s continuum of care includes prevention and education, outpatient services, sober living and recovery support, as well as specialty programs for mothers with young children, crimininal justice clients, and the military community.

Phoenix Houses of New York

In New York, where the first Phoenix House program opened in 1967 and the Phoenix House Academy model was introduced in 1983, Phoenix House now provides a range of programs that includes afterschool outpatient treatment for adolescents and their families, residential and outpatient options for adults and adolescents, programs for mothers with small children, programs that serve clients with co-occurring mental illness, and support services for substance abusers in recovery.

Phoenix Houses of California

Phoenix House has served California since 1979. Today, California has three Phoenix House Academies in Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego Counties. They provide afterschool outpatient programs for adolescents as well as residential and outpatient options for adults.

Phoenix Houses of New England

Phoenix Houses of New England – originally called Marathon House – was founded in 1967 by a coalition of social service professionals, clergy, business, and political leaders in Providence, Rhode Island. Today, they operate 45 programs in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. In addition to residential and outpatient programs, Phoenix Houses of New England provides services for specific populations, including the homeless, persons involved with the criminal justice system and those charged with driving under the influence.

Phoenix Houses of Florida

Phoenix House has served Florida since the early 1990s, treating Tampa adolescents and adults at their Derek Jeter Center and Adult Outpatient Counseling Center, respectively. Adults with advanced substance abuse or substance abuse complicated by mental health conditions are treated at Phoenix House’s Citra residential facility in Marion County.

Phoenix Houses of Texas

Phoenix Houses of Texas was founded in 1995 and currently operates programs in Dallas, Austin and the Houston/Galveston Bay area. Among these are two Phoenix House Academies for teens in Austin and Dallas. Services range from early intervention to long-term aftercare, and they also operate a school-based prevention program that reaches 15,000 Texas teens annually. Additionally, Phoenix Houses of Texas provide afterschool and out-patient programs.

Phoenix Houses of the Mid-Atlantic

Phoenix Houses of the Mid-Atlantic — formerly known as Vanguard Services Unlimited — serves individuals struggling with substance abuse in Virginia, Maryland, Washington, D.C., Delaware, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. Programs provide residential, transitional, and outpatient treatment with gender-specific programs to adults and adolescents. A Spanish-speaking men’s residential program is also offered.

Celebrity Involvement

After completing work on Cadillac Records

Cadillac Records

Cadillac Records is a 2008 musical biopic written and directed by Darnell Martin. The film explores the musical era from the early 1940s to the late 1960s, chronicling the life of the influential Chicago-based record-company executive Leonard Chess, and the musicians who recorded for Chess...

, Beyoncé Knowles

Beyoncé Knowles

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles , often known simply as Beyoncé, is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and actress. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she enrolled in various performing arts schools and was first exposed to singing and dancing competitions as a child...

 donated her entire salary to Phoenix House. Beyoncé also visited the Phoenix House Career Academy at Jay Street in Brooklyn, New York in preparation for portraying singer Etta James

Etta James

Etta James is an American blues, soul, rhythm and blues , rock and roll, gospel and jazz singer. In the 1950s and 1960s, she had her biggest success as a blues and R&B singer...

, who was once addicted to heroin. Beyoncé and her mother and business partner Tina Knowles

Tina Knowles

Célestine Ann "Tina" Knowles is an American fashion designer known for her House of Deréon brand. She is perhaps best known as the mother of singers Beyoncé Knowles and Solange Knowles, and was the wife of Mathew Knowles, who managed Destiny's Child and then Beyoncé and Kelly Rowland until...

 later founded the Career Academy’s Beyoncé Cosmetology Center, which offers a seven-month cosmetology training program for adults.

Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Kara DioGuardi created and contributes to the Phoenix Rising Music Program, which includes recording studios in three Phoenix House Academy facilities. The program teaches teens how to operate music recording equipment and how to record their own music as part of their music therapy programs.

Affiliates

Phoenix House is affiliated with COAF (Center on Addiction and the Family). COAF helps families affected by alcohol and other drug abuse and also runs the Facts on Tap education campaign for college students.

Phoenix House was also established in the UK as an entirely separate organisation, though has its origins in the USA-based Phoenix House described above. Phoenix House (UK) runs a number of residential rehabilitation units, structured day programs and is the largest not for profit provider of prison based substance misuse programmes in the UK. In November 2006, Phoenix House (UK) rebranded to trade under the name 'Phoenix Futures.

Awards and Recognition

A RAND

RAND

RAND Corporation is a nonprofit global policy think tank first formed to offer research and analysis to the United States armed forces by Douglas Aircraft Company. It is currently financed by the U.S. government and private endowment, corporations including the healthcare industry, universities...

 study published in September 2004 found that adolescents treated at one of Phoenix House's teen treatment centers demonstrated substantial reductions in drug use and unlawful behavior and an improvement in psychological status—and that the Phoenix Academy outperformed other juvenile programs in achieving these objectives.

Phoenix House also conducts research into drug and alcohol treatment, along with research partners including RAND

RAND

RAND Corporation is a nonprofit global policy think tank first formed to offer research and analysis to the United States armed forces by Douglas Aircraft Company. It is currently financed by the U.S. government and private endowment, corporations including the healthcare industry, universities...

, Columbia University

Columbia University

Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...

, New York University

New York University

New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

, and UCLA.

Board of Directors

CHAIRMAN

• JEFFREY A. McDERMOTT: Managing Partner, Greentech Capital Advisors

VICE CHAIRMAN

• GEORGE A. KELLNER: Chief Executive Officer, Kellner DiLeo and Company

• ROSE MARIE BRAVO CBE

• TINA BROWN: Founder, The Daily Beast

• WOLE C. COAXUM: Senior Vice President, JP Morgan Chase, Treasury Services

• JILL COLLINS: Principal, Barclay Partners, LLC

• MICHAEL J. DeSOLA: Chairman, DeSola Group, Inc.

• FRANK DOROFF: Vice Chairman Ready To Wear and Bloomingdale’s Direct, Bloomingdale’s

• HILL A. FEINBERG: Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, First Southwest Company

• ERIC J. FRIEDMAN: Executive Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, LLP

• GEORGE FRIEDMAN

• CARY L. HALL, JR.: Vice President of Investments, UBS Financial Services, Inc.

• CHARLES A. HEIMBOLD, JR.: Former Ambassador to Sweden and Chairman Emeritus, Bristol-Myers Squibb Company

• CAROL A. HERTLING

• BRENDAN L. HOFFMAN: President and Chief Executive Officer, Lord & Taylor

• NANCY HOVING

• ROBERT M. HOWE: Chairman, Montgomery Goodwin Investments

• THOMAS W. JASPER: Chief Executive Officer, Primus Financial Products, LLC

• BETTY E. KING: Foundation Consultant

• LAWRENCE LEDERMAN: Milbank, Tweed, Hadley & McCloy

• LAURENCE C. LEEDS, JR.: Chairman, Buckingham Capital Management

• WENDY FLINK LEVEY: Director, Epiphany Community Nursery School

• KENNETH B. MARLIN: Managing Partner and Founder, Marlin & Associates New York LLC

• EDWARD D. MILLER: Former President and CEO, AXA Financial, Inc.

• TIMOTHY J. NOONAN: President & Chief Executive Officer, Lockton Insurance Brokers, LLC

• LYNN PIKE: President, Capital One Bank

• RICHARD L. PLEPLER: Co-President, Home Box Office

• ERNEST H. POMERANTZ:Chairman, StoneWater Capital, LLC

• WILLIAM D. RIFKIN: Vice Chairman of Mergers and Acquisitions, J.P. Morgan

• ANDREW ROSEN, President and Co-CEO, Theory LLC

• SHIRLEY LORD ROSENTHAL: VOGUE Magazine, Author

• CATHERINE SAMUELS

• DOUGLAS E. SCHOEN, Ph.D.

• JAY T. SNYDER: Principal, HBJ Investments, LLC

• SHERI L. SWEITZER

• ANNETTE TAPERT: Author

• W. CHRISTOPHER WHITE: Partner, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP

• BYRON R. WIEN: Vice Chairman, Blackstone Advisory Services, The Blackstone Group, L.P.

• BARBARA A. YASTINE: Partner, Southgate Investment Partners, LLC

External links

• Phoenix House
• Phoenix Academy
• Phoenix Futures (UK)
• Facts on Tap