The first weeks
are where men fall.
A man walks out of treatment or out of the county jail with real sober time and an empty wallet. The bed costs money today. The job starts Monday and the first check clears the Friday after that. We pay that gap, straight to the house, so nobody loses a bed waiting on a paycheck he has already earned.
One job, done well.
Redemption Ridge Foundation pays program fees at recovery residences for men who cannot pay them yet. That is the whole job. We do not own a house. We do not run a house. We do not take a cut of anyone's rent. We hold a small fund, we keep a written standard for who gets helped and where, and we pay the house directly against its posted rate.
The men we are built for are the ones with the least room to wait: out of inpatient, out of jail, out of the Department of Correction, sober and serious and three weeks short of a paycheck. That stretch is short, it is cheap to cover, and it is where most of the falling happens.
Money to the house. Never to the man.
Three steps, and the third one is the point of the whole thing.
Somebody asks
The man himself, or a case manager, a probation officer, a pastor, or a mother asking on his behalf. It takes a few minutes and we answer fast, because the people who need this are usually asking with a release date already on the calendar.
We pay the residence
If the house meets the standard and the need is real, we pay his fee straight to the house against its posted rate and its invoice. No cash ever passes through a resident's hands, and the house knows from day one who is covered and for how long.
He takes it over
The first two weeks are covered in full. In week three he pays about fifty dollars of his own. From week four he carries his own fee like every other man in the house. The taper is deliberate: the same dollar reaches roughly twice as many men as buying somebody a whole month, and no man learns to lean on us.
Same answer for every man.
The rules are written down before anybody asks, so nobody has to wonder whether he got a fair hearing.
- Any qualified recovery residence, not just one
- The house posts its rates and its rules
- We pay the house on its invoice, never cash to a resident
- Help is a defined stretch with a taper, not an open account
- Need comes first, and the same policy is applied to everybody
- We say plainly how many men the fund carried and for how long
Where men stay.
We are starting in Shelby County. The first residence we sponsor into is the men's house at 415 South Pike Street in Shelbyville, operated by TD Transitional Services. As the fund grows, so does the list of houses we pay into.
We do not own or run housing, and that keeps the decision simple. A man goes where there is a good bed open, and we cover the fee while he gets on his feet.
Need a bed?
Beds belong to the houses. Apply to the house directly, and tell them you are asking Redemption Ridge to help with the fee. If you do not know where to start, ask us and we will point you.
Run a recovery residence?
If you keep beds for men in Shelby County and you post your rates, we want to know you. Tell us what you charge, what your rules are, and how many beds you hold, and you go on the list we pay into.
Case managers, probation officers, and re-entry coordinators
If you have a man with a release date and no first month, that is the exact hole this fund exists to fill. One email tells you whether we can cover him and for how long, usually the same day: tim@redemption-ridge.org
About $400 carries a man to his first full check.
Two weeks paid, a partial week, and then he is standing on his own money. That is the whole gap, and it is the cheapest thing anyone will ask you to buy this year.
Sponsor a Man