Recovery without stigma: How Minnesota Adult and Teen Challenge’s model makes freedom from addiction possible

This story is the first in a series exploring recovery journeys and community impact through “Letters to the Lost.” In upcoming pieces, you’ll hear directly from those who’ve experienced addiction and found hope on the other side.

Everyone who walks through the doors of Minnesota Adult & Teen Challenge (MnTC) carries a story. Many have experienced grief, trauma, or loss, and have looked for ways to cope with the pain that come with those experiences.

“We’ve found that most people have some kinds of broken spaces,” says Jen Brink, MnTC’s vice president of marketing. “Some people may choose to fill them with social media, or shopping, gambling, or any other number of things.”

But whatever has led someone to finally come to MnTC isn’t the most important part of their story, Brink says. That’s because, through the program, they can find the power to fill those broken spaces with something else.

“Our main mission is to help people find freedom from addiction,” Brink said. “What we do is give people the ability to fill those broken spaces with faith.”

Incorporating faith into recovery

MnTC first opened in Minneapolis in 1993 under Pastor Rich Scherber when he turned an abandoned building into a residential recovery center.

The faith-based curriculum is open to everyone, Brink says, and its guiding principles include grace and forgiveness. For those in recovery, that often means forgiveness for themselves as well as others.

“Most people who have been in addiction for any amount of time have an exceeding amount of shame. They’ve done things, they’ve gone through trauma, they’ve seen things that they can’t let go of,” Brink said. “On the other side is the grace to forgive yourself and forgive those around you so you can move on in life.”

The organization also aims to remove barriers to treatment, with 96% of clients not paying any amount out of pocket for treatment.

“Most people who come to us only have the clothes on their back,” Brink said. “They come out of homeless shelters, trap houses, detox, prison, jail, you name it.”

Meeting the evolving needs of those in addiction

This past year, the organization served a total of 6,236 clients. It’s a number Brink expects to increase as MnTC continues to grow in scope. As drug usage trends have changed nationwide and in Minnesota, so has MnTC’s approach, Brink says.

Among those trends is the prevalence of fentanyl and its role in overdoses. According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, synthetic opioids, primarily fentanyl, were responsible for over 75% of the drug overdose deaths a year in the U.S.

To meet these challenges, Brink says MnTC focuses on treatment as well as prevention. That means going into schools to provide education on drug abuse and its impacts.

Giving people struggling with addiction hope for the future

One of the obstacles people face going into MnTC can be fear, because they know that treatment is hard work and they will need to commit to it for an entire year. They also know that the program will likely work if they stick with it, Brink says.

Recovery doesn’t end when clients leave their program, either. MnTC offers services like transitional housing and education and job support for clients as they reenter the world.

Many graduates of MnTC also choose to work for the organization and give back to the program that got them on their feet.

These graduates serve as both mentors and a source of inspiration for those currently in the program, Brink said. And oftentimes, a graduate is the first person someone coming into the program will meet.

“When they meet one of the graduates, the clients quickly understand there’s no judgment, there’s just a ton of love,” Brink said. “That’s so important to us because we want to make sure people understand who they were isn’t who they are, their past doesn’t define them, and that there’s hope for the future.”