Hidden Gems: Meet David Vandervelde of Awakening Recovery

Today we’d like to introduce you to David Vandervelde.

Hi David, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I got clean and sober in 1988 at the age of 19, close to death from my struggles with substance addiction, mostly crack cocaine and alcohol. Now 37+ years clean and sober, I have been consistently active in my recovery community by mentoring others, serving on recovery and youth related non-profit Boards such as LifeWorks and the West Hollywood Recovery Center, and serving on panels at institutions speaking from my lived experience in recovery. In 2008 I turned 40 years old and 20 years sober which was a cathartic experience that lead me down a journey of figuring out what’s next for me in both my personal and professional life. Through a series of synchronistic events that followed, in 2015 I chose to begin the transition from a 25-year career in producing large-scale corporate events for the sports, entertainment and non-profit sectors, to co-founding Awakening Recovery as its co-founding Executive Director and Board member,, a non-profit recovery home in Los Angeles initially for men which opened in July 2016, helping those without resources looking for a long-term recovery solution for their chronics and acute substance addiction. Additionally, I successfully completed my Certificate in Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counseling from UCLA in 2019. Since then, I’ve devoted this second part of my life to helping those that need it the most find a long-term recovery solution through the life-saving work at Awakening Recovery and in my recovery community at large.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Co-founding Awakening Recovery has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life, filled with triumph and tragedy. Leading a startup nonprofit was a big lift, but we had a great Board of Directors, led by my co-founding Board President Robert A. Daly, Jr. Together, with an amazing donor community, staff, alumni support community and residents, we forged our way forward helping those at the end of their rope with their substance addiction begin their recovery journey. Recently, Austin who came into the house in the first month we opened in July 2016 celebrated 9 years sober, and was also our first alumni Board member who owns his own welding business with his fellow alumni brother Josh. We felt it was important to have an alumni voice at the Board level as well as an alumni family member, which is brilliantly filled by Claudine who’s son Pat recently celebrated 7 years sober and is an active member of our alumni community.

In 2022 we launched a capital campaign to open our women’s house which began to house residents in February of 2023! We looked at a lot of different strategic options to expand beyond our initial men’s house, but overwhelmingly the recovery community said opening a women’s house for those with no resources should be at the top of our list based the dearth of access to long-term recovery housing solutions for women with no resources. One of our biggest challenges, beyond the generous funds raised during our capital campaign to purchase the house with a mortgage and help fund the first year of operations, has been to find new and expanded and sustainable funding now for both houses.

The opioid and poly-substance addiction crisis continues to escalate in LA County, exacerbated by widespread availability of Fentanyl and Methamphetamine. Publicly funded recovery housing remains profoundly limited—only 7 in 100 unhoused individuals with substance addiction have access. AR addresses this urgent gap by providing scholarship based, long-term residential recovery to over 70 residents annually. Our holistic model enables residents, often facing housing insecurity or justice involvement, along with child reunification, to achieve lasting sobriety and reintegration.

We’ve been impressed with Awakening Recovery, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Awakening Recovery, is a Los Angeles based non-profit organization uniquely focused on providing a dynamic year+ recovery housing solution for those with no resources, that is abstinence-based and 12-Step peer mentoring driven, leading to a life-changing and sustainable recovery path for people with chronic and acute substance addiction. We off er access to this lifesaving path with no financial barriers. More than 90% of those who arrive at AR’s two recovery homes — one for men and one for women — have burned all their bridges. They are without resources and truly among our community’s most vulnerable.

Our vision is to be a beacon of hope for those who suffer from chronic and acute substance addiction. Our goal isto bring awareness of this vision and our structured, life changing path to those in need of help locally andnationally.

Los Angeles County is experiencing an unprecedented addiction and overdose crisis, with over 80,000 opioid-related deaths in 2024. At AR, we address this urgent need by offering a structured, 12-Step and abstinence-based recovery environment specifically designed for those with chronic and acute substance addiction who have exhausted all other resources.

Since our founding in 2016, AR has dramatically impacted our community:
* Over 250 residents served, with over 70 residents annually across two dedicated homes (18-bed men’s house and 14-bed women’s house).
* More than 70% of our 40 graduates have remained sober since graduating, surpassing national recovery benchmarks.
* 90%+ residents enter on full scholarships, directly addressing critical gaps in recovery housing access in LA County.

Our unique model emphasizes lasting behavioral change through:
* Scholarship-Based Access: Eliminating financial barriers for vulnerable individuals.
* Peer-Driven Mentorship: Alumni actively mentor residents, providing lived experience and tangible hope.
* Long-Term Residential Stability: Residents engage in a year-plus structured environment integrating daily 12-Step recovery practices.
* Holistic Nonprofit Based Community Partnerships: Residents receive support in mental health, medical care, vocational skills, and wellness activities.

Carlos, a recent AR graduate, exemplifies our transformative impact. After multiple overdoses and incarceration, he came to AR desperate and broken. Today, Carlos is sober, employed full-time, mentoring new residents, living independently with other alumni roommates, and actively involved in community service.

AR’s Men’s and Women’s Houses focus on serving those who are without resources, experiencing housing insecurity or being unhoused, who have been formerly incarcerated and/or are looking for an alternative to incarceration, as well as from the BIPOC communities, and members of the LGBTQ community and transitional age youth 18-26.

Our residents consider AR a sanctuary where they learn –often for the first time in their lives — core tenants of accountability, rigorous honesty, personal responsibility, and the value of a service driven life in recovery. This happens through our peer alumni community, guiding them on their house phase up and 12-Step process in tandem. The connections and community initially built in the house awaken residents and alumni to live a life that is based on helping others to help themselves sustain recovery, becoming productive members of their community and the world.
We help our residents access mental health, medical, and dental needs through our referral, scholarship and nonprofit Medi-Cal based community partners to emphasize a holistic recovery approach. AR has developed partnerships with like-minded professionals willing to help our residents without financial barriers. It takes a village to save a life.

AR’s 40 graduates exemplify the service driven, productive lives our sustainable recovery housing solution makes possible. Peer mentoring at depth, in a abstinence based collaborative living environment, over a year+ period, in parallel with the 12-Steps, awakens residents to build a solid recovery foundation. Los Angeles has many substance addiction recovery options.
While clinical treatment can serve as an effective short-term stabilization strategy,AR’s experience is that it takes longer than the 30-90 days of clinical substance addiction treatment to change a lifetime of maladaptive behaviors, deeply embedded beliefs, and identity associations. Research indicates the longer someone seeking recovery stays in the same recovery location, with the same people in the same process, the better their chance of achieving and maintaining sustained recovery through embedded connections and community.

Residents learn valuable life skills on their route to graduation to fully integrate them back into society as productive members of society through our phase-up and 12-Step driven process that focuses on sustainable behavior change and a durable spiritual awakening. Our long-term goal is for graduates to have full-time jobs, successful life skills, deep and meaningful connection and community, and transition into independent living with another graduating resident or alumni support community member for at least an additional year to solidify the newly awakened recovery life they have built in the house. This sustainable path to recovery for graduates ensures they aren’t returning to dependence on unhoused services, family separation services, illegal activities and incarceration, illicit drug use related medical and mental health services.

Length of stay is our North Star as is affords us the time to help our residents transform their deeply imbedded old ways of thinking, feeling and acting into an identity and belief system based on integrity, honesty, personal responsibility, addiction recovery, and faith and hope in the future based on incorporating the principles of the12-Steps into their daily living. Half of our residents who stay at least 30 days to demonstrate their willingness to engage in a long-term recovery process stay to six months, and half of those that stay at least 6 months remain to graduate. As research shows it takes more than 90 days to form a habit, our year+ long recovery home process to graduation optimizes the likelihood that their new life in recovery will be a sustainable one. Over 70% of our alumni have remained sober since graduating, have full-time jobs and live in independent living permanent housing.

So maybe we end on discussing what matters most to you and why?
When I got sober at 19 I had a lot of self-centered thinking and fears and lived my life largely based on a belief system of shame and blame, and it was killing me through my progressive and fatal substance addiction. Having spent most of my adult life now in active recovery and on a spiritual path, my identity and belief system today at age 57 is based on living a service driven life in all areas of my life. Helping others is altruistic for all of us, but for me my recovery and happiness is dependent on daily feeding of my spiritual connection through the 12-Steps, being present for my personal, family and business relationships, and helping another person seeking recovery find it, engage in it and thrive in their own recovery journey. When I first got sober that way of life was completely foreign to me and I didn’t see the value in it, now it is where I find relief and replenish my soul so I can handle the large plate I have been given and continue to expand it so I can help more people find the amazing life I found. Connection and community is not only the keystone of Awakening Recovery’s residents and alumni, it is the key to my own life’s success. A great example of this was when one of our alumni Tyler and his fiance Talula asked me to officiate their wedding a couple years ago. I had never done that before, but was honored and humbled they asked me so I figured out how to do it and it was a beautiful experience. Our whole community showed up for the wedding and while I looked out onto the dance floor during the reception watching our graduates dancing together as a community, I leaned over to my co-founding Board President Bobby and said, “this is why we do this, isn’t it?” and we both welled up with joy and gratitude.

Pricing:

• We are a scholarship based recovery home process for those with no resources.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.awakeningrecovery.org
• Instagram: #Awakeningrecoverywla
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/awakeningwla
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/10676516
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMbSjgZOB41eN7VSVXH_fnQ