This Nonprofit Helps Recovering Addicts Transform Their Lives

Habilitat’s 30-month residential program gives people the time and resources to work through issues and train for future jobs.

When you walk through Habilitat’s 1.5-acre property on Kāne‘ohe Bay, you not only get a gorgeous oceanfront view, but also glimpses of residents hard at work: cooking, cleaning, doing office and construction work and other tasks.

That’s part of the treatment at this drug and alcohol rehab nonprofit: Every resident undergoes vocational training to better equip themselves for life outside. One sign of the program’s effectiveness is that 16 of Habilitat’s 18 employees are graduates, including Preston Pacleb-Timbol, the organization’s admissions representative.

“A lot of the things that I’ve learned here is to just take life seriously, because if we mess up, it’s somebody’s life on the line,” Pacleb-Timbo says. “So I’ve learned to take other lives and my life very, very seriously.”

Charity Navigator, a national organization that assesses nonprofits, gives Habilitat a score of 100% and a perfect four-star rating based on the watchdog’s metric of accountability and finance. Charity Navigator says the metric considers a charity’s financial efficiency, sustainability and trustworthiness, and its commitment to governance practices and policies.

Habilitat’s 2.5-year program costs $2,000 a month. It operates on a sliding scale based on residents’ needs, and those who cannot afford the program can apply for full-ride scholarships. The treatment occurs in phases.

• Orientation: During the first month at Habilitat, each new resident transitions into the program and is assigned an older brother or sister to help them.
• Treatment phase: Residents take part in seminars and process groups during this six- to nine-month phase. In this phase residents focus on developing basic life skills, identifying and addressing their behaviors and issues, improving their ability to accept direction and constructive criticism, and enhance their timeliness, work ethic, and punctuality. Eventually, in this phase, residents will work the front check-in desk and make sure everyone is accounted for.
• Reentry and vocational training: This is the longest phase, usually lasting 12 to 18 months. Residents do “a simulated workday,” says Habilitat Executive Director Jeff Nash, who is also a program graduate, and after their work shifts end, they continue treatment.

Residents submit formal proposals indicating their preferred vocational programs. The proposals are evaluated by Habilitat staff members, who assign residents to the vocational training that best aligns with their strengths and weaknesses.

Vocational departments cover accounting, administration, admissions, culinary skills, sales and marketing, construction services and program operations management.

Five businesses operate out of Habilitat’s vocational training program, each run by residents and managed by staff who were once residents. They are Habilitat Construction, Habilitat Christmas Trees, the Habilitat fencing and yard crew, a catering company called All Kine Grindz and a haunted house attraction called Dead End.

The end of the reentry phase focuses on the transition to a successful life after Habilitat. Residents go through numerous classes on financial empowerment, create resumes and submit their official plans A and B, with detailed budgets.

“I’ve never thought I would have made it this far in my own life,” Pacleb-Timbo says. “But it was thanks to Habilitat that I’ve done anything remotely good in life.”