Stories of Safe Harbor: Jeff Poch

"I'm the day program case manager here at Safe Harbor. I first came here in 2007 as a resident, homeless, sleeping underneath the bridge, addicted to crack cocaine."
"What makes someone take a first hit of crack?"
"For me, I was brought up in a very abusive home life at a very young age. There was a lot of alcohol abuse with my dad; my mom, physical abuse, mental abuse, emotional abuse. From there, I started hanging out with the wrong crowd and there was very little guidance in my life. It started with marijuana, drinking some beer, progressed to cocaine, experimenting with other stuff and I took my first hit of crack when I was 26 years old. That spawned fifteen years of life spiraling down and down and down, doing things that I normally wouldn't do."
"So after you got to safe Harbor, what happened?"
"I came here and utilized the case management that was here. From there, case management told me I needed to turn myself in because I had some issues I needed to take care of. Had to go to jail, came back out and got involved with the community, got involved with a lot of outreach programs, went back to school. Little by little, I started volunteering, and I was asked to come here and do a men's group about two years ago. From there I started working full time as the day program manager and now have since been promoted as a case manager. It's kinda come full circle for me in the last seven years. this June, I have seven years clean coming up and the rewards of safe Harbor are far better than anything I could ever imagine: being able to work with another person and share my experiences and hopes with them and hopes of improving the quality of their life improves the quality of my own life. For that, I'm very blessed and grateful to be part of safe Harbor." 

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