Free at Last Community Recovery and Rehabilitation Services

By contributing to this campaign, you are supporting those who are ready to return to a life of sobriety and become productive members of local communities here in Silicon Valley. You will help restore self-respect and reunite families. You will be part of the change Free At Last (FAL) brings to  individual lives and communities recovering from drug and alcohol addiction.

What We Do

Addiction is a trap that anyone can fall into, from the high-tech professional to the high school dropout. Addiction is like quicksand; you need someone on solid ground to help pull you out.

In today’s society, drugs and alcohol are ever-present, and they can wreck a career and a life. Many families have had to work through a loved-one’s addiction. If you have experienced this, you know that when a person is really ready to build a sober life, support systems are essential. Every year, FAL helps individuals who are ready to return to a stable and productive life.

The Challenge

In poorer urban communities, addiction often leads to incarceration. Often, illegal activity to support a drug habit puts a father in prison or leaves a mother without custody of her children. Often, these already emotionally vulnerable children end up in foster care.

FAL in East Palo Alto was founded by men and women who were transformed by recovery. Their passion to help others rebuild their lives led them to create a community-based substance abuse recovery program that helps break the cycle of addiction and incarceration. Since 1994 FAL has assisted thousands of people through counseling, housing, basic life-skills training and has, thus, sponsored the reunification of hundreds of families.

FAL is known and respected on the San Francisco Peninsula as the provider of dependable services for individuals in need of a hand up (not a hand-out). It is the program that those leaving prison with hopes of staying clean, sober and gainfully employed turn to.

How We Succeed

FAL offers outpatient and residential treatment programs for men and women and provides transitional housing for program graduates. FAL has created a strong community-based network of support for clients and graduates. FAL counselors, many of whom are recovered addicts themselves, help clients in various aspects of their lives. They help clients establish a clean and sober support system, address legal and medical issues, reestablish communication with their families, develop life skills and, finally, help them secure a job. Through the neighborhood drop-in center, individuals can be enrolled in treatment programs, participate in 12-step meetings six days a week, get referrals to a wide variety of community resources, have their basic needs met, sign up for a Driving Under the Influence (DUI) First Offenders program, etc. 

Annually, FAL helps 4,200 people who sign-in with programs and services.