FROM CRISIS TO CAREER: AMANDA GRIM’S STORY

September 10, 2018

With half of its 400+ employees in recovery from substance use disorder, Addiction Recovery Care (ARC) is leading the way in all of Appalachia when it comes to combining drug treatment and vocational training resulting in second chance employment. One out of three of ARC’s 400+ employees are graduates of an ARC treatment program. ARC believes that the solution to the nation’s workforce issues is lying dormant in the lives of those who are struggling with addiction or alcoholism.

ARC will be highlighting the stories of people who were once trapped in addiction and are noe flourishing, productive, taxpaying members of society. They have gone “from crisis to career.”

From Crisis to Career: Amanda Grim’s Story

Amanda Grim works for Career Services at Addiction Recovery Care (ARC), Inc, in the Education and Career Services Department. That means she spends her days training people to build a career from the ruins of their personal crisis. It’s a pathway that Amanda knows all too well, having walked it herself. The 35 year old native of Louisa once felt that addiction to drugs totally owned her. After spending 22 years as an addict, Grim says: “I felt completely enslaved by addiction and as if I had no choices.”

In July of 2017, when Amanda entered treatment at ARC’s Louisa Outpatient Center, located on South Main Cross, she felt her life would never have value as anything other than an addict. “I felt I was too far gone to recover; I was jobless, homeless, and a needle junkie.”

Today, she not only has a career, but plans for the future. “I would love to further my education since I only ever got my GED. I want to help people see a way out of hopelessness through Christ.”  Previously, she was homeless.  Now, she’s a proud new homeowner.   

Amanda says she wants people in active addiction and people whose loved ones are struggling with the disease to know that there can be a future: “There is hope! No one is ever too far gone to recover or be forgiven.”  She sums it well with this simple rule: “God don’t make junk!”

Amanda gives God the credit for her successes. “I thought I would never have a career. With 3 felonies on my record I was unemployable. ARC walked me through my recovery process every step and then they gave me a job.”  Today, Grim says, “I get to help others find hope.”  And she does that by working alongside the people who helped restore hers.  “God has moved mountains in my life!”

Addiction Recovery Care is a substance use disorder treatment center headquartered in Louisa. It has outpatient and inpatient facilities around Kentucky. It prides itself on helping clients achieve recovery and taking them “from crisis to career!”

If you or a loved one is struggling with addiction, please call Addiction Recovery Care at 606.638.0938 or visit them on the web at www.arccenters.com. Phone and chat addiction support available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

There is hope. There is help.