Speak to an Advocate for Hope
ARCHway Institute’s Advocates for Hope
Advocates for Hope includes individuals in recovery and caregivers affected by addiction. Both are able to offer support, based on their own personal experience.
Often ARCHway’s requests for help are from individuals and families like you, who don’t know what to do or where to go for help. They feel alone. They are fearful. And they feel like there is no hope.
Our Advocates for Hope can provide emotional support and help guide you towards the right resources whether that be treatment, recovery housing, or community support.
This process can start with one of ARCHway’s Peer Advocates.
These individuals have the knowledge and experience to guide individuals and families towards a path of recovery. They can also direct you to ARCHway Institute’s additional advocates: caregivers, counselors, and professionals.
Meet ARCHway’s Peer Advocates:
Chris Lane
After roughly 17 treatments, Chris found recovery from his substance use through recovery housing and peer support. He lived in Recovery House of St. Louis for over three years and managed one of the houses for over two years. In recovery housing, he saw other men whose lives had been changed by recovery and who were now helping others. He found that being surrounded by others in recovery, having accountability, structure, and being on the right medications led him to helping others like himself find and maintain recovery. It was this experience that saved his life, that gave him his family back, and so much more. Today, Chris works at Sana Lake Recovery Center in Missouri. He has experience managing recovery housing, providing peer support, running an alumni program, and doing business development. Chris is a champion for recovery, and he is always available to answer the phone for someone who is currently struggling through the chaos of addiction. [Contact Chris]
Click here to read Chris’s Story of Hope.
David Aumiller
David Aumiller is in long-term recovery. He worked as a Certified Peer Specialist with Assisted Recovery Centers of America (ARCA) and as a manager at Recovery House in St. Louis. David also has experience with case management and crisis intervention among conserved individuals in California. While in CA, he helped with community outreach for the homeless population as well.
As an adolescent, David began using drugs and alcohol. He started abusing prescription painkillers after being diagnosed with cancer at 18, and he would continue to spiral downward after the death of his mother the following year. David used a myriad of alcohol and drugs to cope with the loss of not only his mother, but his cousin, grandparents, several close friends, and finally his father, who passed due to ALS a few years later. Throughout his struggles with addiction, David has survived overdose, prison, and periods of homelessness.
Through his experience with the hardships of addiction, David now uses his recovery to inspire and relate to those still suffering and struggling to cope with the insidious and baffling nature of this disease as well as to provide support to caregivers who, exhausted, find themselves equally despondent. David has been a part of ARCHway for many years, and welcomes the opportunity to help and provide support to others. [Contact David]
Jimmy McGill
Jimmy’s life began in the shadows of generational challenges. Raised in an environment marked by trauma, Jimmy’s path seemed predetermined. At just 11 years old, he sought solace in alcohol and drugs as a means to escape the pain of physical and emotional abuse. For over two decades, Jimmy’s life spiraled into a self-imposed prison called addiction. Countless arrests, failed relationships, and a continuous pursuit of substances defined his existence. His journey was a chaotic blend of personal turmoil, gang activity, and multiple incarcerations. The cycle seemed unbreakable. The turning point came in 2014, within the confines of Lonoke County jail. Weeks of sobriety behind bars allowed his natural charisma to resurface, earning him trusty status and the perks that accompanied it. Paroled to a recovery residence in 2015, Jimmy encountered a fellow addict whose recovery story illuminated the true nature of addiction. This revelation fueled Jimmy’s determination to pursue recovery with the same fervor he once pursued drugs. He listened, learned, and embarked on a journey of healing “out loud,” transforming his life and those around him.[Contact Jimmy]
Click here to read Jimmy’s Story of Hope.
Marybeth Hill
Marybeth is a person in long-term recovery who has also successfully reintegrated society after incarceration. By the grace of God, she celebrated 7 years sober from all mood and mind altering substances on May 9th. Since finding recovery, she has made it her mission to give back to the community that helped restore her back to sanity. Along with working in the recovery and mental health field for over 4 years, Marybeth sits on an Advisory Board called the Women’s Justice Health Alliance. She has made it her mission to not only help the addict who is still suffering but to also advocate for justice-involved individuals. When she’s not doing that, you can find Marybeth with her 3 children or at her local CrossFit gym! [Contact Marybeth]
Click here to read Marybeth’s Story of Hope.
John Singer
John Singer is a manager at Recovery House of Saint Louis, where he guides peers in transitional living. He is also the Lead Peer Specialist at MoBetter Living LLC, another recovery housing provider in the St. Louis area.
From John:
“My name is John Singer. I am a person in long-term recovery. I started my journey face down on probably my hundredth rock bottom. It took me a long time to finally surrender and ask for help, but once I did, I never looked back.
With the right resources and by moving into sober living, my life has taken a turn for the better. My life has meaning and purpose today, and I have a passion for helping people who are in the exact same place I was at one time.
To those struggling, I know you may feel lost and confused about what to do, but I am here to tell you that there is help and a better life waiting for you. Please feel free to contact me anytime. Thank you.” [Contact John]
Jake Dunavant
Jacob Dunavant is a young man in long term recovery from substance use and mental health. Jacob is a Certified Peer Specialist working with the Assisted Recovery Centers of America (ARCA). Jacob is also a manager at Recovery House in St. Louis.
In the past, he struggled with heroin, fentanyl and meth. He also knows what it is like to try to maintain a relationship with his children’s mother, lose custody of two young children, become homeless, address past legal wreckage, and eventually overcome all of these in his recovery.
Jacob uses his lived experience of recovery from a mental health condition and substance use disorder to provide non-clinical, strengths-based support to others experiencing similar challenges in order to positively impact the recovery community and connect individuals to life saving care. [Contact Jake]
Meet ARCHway’s Caregiver Advocates:
Dan Stuckey
As Dan explains, “Jan and I got involved in ARCHway based on our own experiences trying to help family members and friends fight an addiction disease as Caregivers.
My experience trying to navigate treatment options including wide ranges of costs for services was mind boggling for me. At that same time, I was in crisis mode as a caregiver and was dealing with my own depression over what was happening to my loved ones. They say addiction is a family disease because it impacts the entire family.
I became passionate about helping others by sharing our experiences and by helping others navigate the available services out there by connecting them to professional resources that they desperately need to connect with. Most of all I found others, like myself, that needed someone to talk to who understood what they were going through.” [Contact Dan]
Click here to read Dan & Jan’s Story of Hope
Jan Stuckey
According to Jan, “Dan and I got involved in ARCHway after watching our son battle his addiction to heroin. We wanted to move forward by helping others who are also walking this path and want help.
As a caregiver, I found myself exhausted trying whatever we could find to get him the help and treatment he needed. In addition, we needed to know what our role was in regards to helping and not enabling.
I find now, knowing there are others out there for support and who have walked in our shoes, is so very helpful and comforting. In this way, I would like to help others.” [Contact Jan]
Click here to read Dan & Jan’s Story of Hope
We urge you to speak with one of ARCHway Institute’s Advocates for Hope!
Please fill out this confidential form. We respond to all requests within 48 hours.
The Advocate For Hope interaction is delivered by an individual with lived experience, making a connection to an individual in need. The individual in need could be a person with a substance use disorder or the caregiver of that person. Ongoing services such as peer recovery coaching, counseling, recovery housing, treatment or medical services are not part of the ARCHway Advocates For Hope program.