SITE Provides Crucial Support for David HollowayTo Enter Workforce During Recovery

David Holloway knows what it’s like when things begin to spiral and there’s little you can do on your own to reverse the momentum.

That’s where Holloway was in 2019 when he first arrived in Morehead, Ky., to begin a long-term rehabilitation program that followed decades of ongoing alcohol and substance use. He was 48 and facing a criminal charge that stemmed from his actions as an addict, but he also says he was ready for something to change.    

David Holloway

A native of Lexington, Ky., Holloway says substance use was something he began early in life. Things began to take a particularly bad turn during his last 10 years of active addiction—a dark time which included the loss of his mother.  

“I was in addiction for so long that she had been dead for two years before I found out she was dead,” Holloway recalls. “I had never experienced death among my loved ones; it took a chunk out of me. Not only was she my mother, she was my best friend. She had me at a young age and we kind of grew up together.” 

Through his addiction, Holloway eventually ended up bouncing from place to place, at one time living on the streets in southern Florida and later as far away as New Jersey. Finally arriving in Morehead, though, this time was going to be different.  

Holloway says he’d gone through short-term rehab programs before, but when he completed them he always fell directly back into the same environment that enabled his addiction. And his addiction, he adds, was actively preventing him from recognizing the change he needed to make. 

“I knew my life was really messed up, but I just had a disease that kept me thinking I didn’t have a disease,” he says. “Any moment of clarity when I wasn’t using drugs told me I wasn’t a drug addict and that I didn’t have to have it, even when every moment of the day was me becoming motivated to try and get it.” 

By early 2019, Holloway landed at the Morehead Inspiration Center (MIC), a long-term residential recovery program that can last from nine to 12 months. He says he needed that long-term approach to help him really begin the cycle of transitioning from active addiction to becoming active in his recovery from it.  

“Six months was not enough time for me to take care of something I had spent years producing,” he says.  

It was at MIC that Holloway says he began to develop some tools to help reverse the effects of those previous decades, and also where he first heard about another program called SITE (Strategic Initiative for Transformational Employment) that is designed to assist individuals like himself step onto a career path and lead to productive participation in the workforce. It was an encounter that he credits with placing him on the path he’s on today. 

Holloway graduated from MIC’s program in January 2020, but he knew that to continue his recovery he couldn’t return to Lexington where the same environment that enabled his addiction was waiting. He chose to remain at MIC, and through their career development office was referred to SITE Job Entry and Retention Support Specialist Ryan Bowman for career assistance. 

An initiative of the Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program (EKCEP), Inc. and funded by the Kentucky Opioid Response Effort (KORE), SITE provides valuable career, training, and supportive services while actively cultivating second-chance job opportunities. Fortunately, Holloway says the assistance Bowman offered wasn’t just another program where he completed a curriculum and would be left on his own to figure out everything else. He says Bowman remained with him through months of recovery to help him take advantage of the opportunities available, including training for a job where Holloway can use his own experience to help others. 

David Holloway displays his peer support specialist certification.

“This peer support thing was being talked about heavily,” he says. “Everybody was talking about it, and I just felt that maybe if I stayed around in this career development office for a while, maybe some things would happen for me.” 

With assistance from SITE, Holloway signed up to begin training for certification as a peer support specialist, a position that would see him begin to provide assistance to others with alcohol or substance use issues. With funds from SITE, Bowman covered the complete cost of Holloway’s training. 

“I was put in a position to help others, and it did something to me,” Holloway says. “It had me stop trying to think about myself all the time, and made me feel good that I was helping people.” 

Holloway says he also benefitted from the structure of the change he was undergoing, and how that could play a role in ensuring that he maintains his recovery.  

“That’s what Ryan is doing for me,” he adds. “Not only has he talked to me about my goals, he’s putting into play avenues to help me reach those goals.” 

Holloway left MIC in the spring of 2020 and moved to the Oxford House in Morehead, a transitional housing facility for individuals in recovery. Bowman assisted him with obtaining employment as a peer support specialist at Edgewater Recovery in Rowan County, a position he’s continuing to work at in early 2021. 

Holloway says he’s now able to use his own story of recovery to help others who are suffering from the same addiction that he continues to battle. His story, he adds, can give power to others to realize that they’re also not hopeless and can change their lives in the same way.   

“Edgewater is where I give back,” he says. “I get to return the favor. My story—my message—brings hope to these guys starting their recovery.” 

Since moving to the Oxford House, Holloway has continued to progress. Within a few weeks of living there he was named house leader and has since been given some authority over the house’s finances. Bowman, meanwhile, continues working to help ensure Holloway receives the support he needs and remains on an upward trajectory. He’s currently working to help Holloway obtain a vehicle through the Goodwill Cars to Work program.  

“David is fully committed, not only to his own recovery, but others around him as well,” Bowman says. “I have pushed him at times, and he has shown the restraint of a man fully aware of himself and his environment. When he was attempting to move into a sober living facility, I saw how great he was doing and asked him if he would rather us work on moving into an apartment. David, having the courage and discipline that he has, said that he was going to move at a slow pace and do things right this time. This speaks volumes to how concerned he is with his recovery. He has been an absolute joy to work with and I cannot wait to work more with him in the future, both as a participant and a referral source.” 

For Holloway, he’s at a place in his life where he is finally looking forward and not back. And more importantly, Bowman and SITE are helping him dictate his own life rather than trying to dictate it for him. Holloway says anyone in a similar position as himself would benefit from the services that SITE can provide, and as he continues to give back by working at Edgewater meeting people at MIC and sharing his story with them, he’s actively referring people to Bowman, as well.  

“There’s a ripple effect of doing the right thing,” he says. “People talk about the ripple effect of negativity, but there’s also a ripple effect of positivity.” 

To learn more about SITE and available services, visit ekcep.org. 

EKCEP, a nonprofit workforce development agency headquartered in Hazard, Ky., serves the citizens of 23 Appalachian coalfield counties. The agency provides an array of workforce development services and operates the Kentucky Career Center JobSight network of workforce centers, which provide access to more than a dozen state and federal programs that offer employment and training assistance for jobseekers and employers all under one roof. Learn more about us at http://www.ekcep.org, http://www.jobsight.org and http://www.facebook.com/ekcep.