SITE Services were ‘Make or Break’ for Georgetown Resident Patrick Biddle while Restarting Career after Addiction
Patrick Biddle is in a place where he’s building things. He’s building a business, an education, and a new life outside of addiction.
Not long ago he was heading in a completely different direction.
Patrick Biddle
“I got addicted to drugs and to the point where I wasn’t working for probably 10 years,” Biddle says. “I ended up getting in trouble and going to treatment.”
A native of Georgetown, Ky., Biddle’s path to recovery began in 2020 inside a Prestonsburg treatment facility several counties away. It was where he also first learned about the Strategic Initiative for Transformational Employment (SITE), a program that would ultimately help ensure that he remained on track in restarting his career while maintaining his recovery.
SITE is geared toward assisting individuals in recovery from substance use issues. An initiative of Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program (EKCEP), SITE works to bridge the gulf between recovery and productive participation in the workforce by providing eligible Kentuckians with valuable career services while actively cultivating second-chance job opportunities.
In Biddle’s case, SITE’s status as a statewide initiative meant that he could begin working with then SITE Retention Specialist Jimmie Wilson while still in treatment in Eastern Kentucky. After successfully completing the 90-day treatment program in Prestonsburg, he moved into a sober living facility in Scott County, where Wilson referred him to Job Entry and Retention Support Specialist Terri Hudson, who provides SITE services in the Bluegrass region and would first help him with building a résumé and getting it in front of employers.
While Biddle remained in active addiction for years, he did have a background of previous employment. He possessed skills in construction that were transferable to the job market, and it wasn’t long before he landed a maintenance position. But he knew that if he was going to keep the job that he would need some help along the way.
Through SITE, Hudson was first able to secure funding to cover the cost of tools Biddle needed for work. She also helped obtain funding to cover the cost of needed repairs to a vehicle he purchased shortly after completing treatment. It ended up being an important assist, he says, and helped ensure he was able to continue getting to the job sites to complete incoming work orders.
“That was make or break for me,” Biddle says. “I had all my tools in the back of my truck and going to different jobs. If she hadn't helped I wouldn’t have been able to do it.”
What Biddle began as an initial job to get himself started following treatment has now grown into something else entirely. He has since branched out on his own, founding Building and Property Maintenance, LLC, a private contracting company that completes construction and maintenance ranging from remodels to painting and concrete work. It’s a career he says that keeps him busy and able to maintain a regular schedule while earning a living. And it's a business that he plans to build upon.
“I knew I was going to go back into construction of some type,” he says. “I get to do something different every day like this.”
Today, Biddle is continuing to work on his recovery and building his business while also maintaining a steady college schedule. He’s working toward a degree in business management, which was something Hudson was also able to assist with when she came across a resource to help him secure funding for general expenses while enrolled in school. She penned a letter of recommendation for him and helped him meet the deadline to apply for the funding, which he was later awarded.
Biddle says he’s in this position now not only because of the important work he has put into himself, but also because of the assistance he received from Hudson and the SITE program along the way, from helping build his first résumé to connecting him with resources. It’s a program that he recommends for others in similar positions.
“When Terri helped with the tools and getting my truck fixed, I started spreading the word about her around town,” he says. “A lot of people in recovery think, ‘I was a junkie or drug addict, nobody is going to help me.’ I told them to make sure to let them know that you’re in recovery and clean now and trying to rebuild and get started. Just be open with them.”
To learn more about the services available through SITE, and how the initiative be able to assist you or someone you know, visit www.ekcep.org/site.
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.
