The house members will invite applicants to the house for an interview where they will ask questions and then decide as a group who they will vote into the house as a new member. Interviews are usually held in person, but can also be done over the phone. The average number of times an Oxford House resident has been through prior treatment is three, but for about a quarter of residents their Oxford House residency is after their first treatment episode. “We found that participants assigned to a communal living Oxford House compared to usual care condition had significantly less substance use and criminal involvement and, significantly better employment outcomes.” Oxford House has enabled peer-run, self-sustaining, and substance-free housing since 1975. Find a house, fill out the application, and call a house to schedule an interview.
- Oxford House gave me the opportunity to practice the principles and action.
- Generally an individual comes into an Oxford House following a 28-day rehabilitation program or at least a 5 to10-day detoxification program.
- Oxford Houses flourish in metropolitan areas such as New York City and Washington D.C.
- Many of us soon learned, however, that living alone or living among our old drinking companions made it more difficult to practice the principles necessary for continued sobriety.
- All Oxford Houses have been careful to avoid undo dependence on government or other outside funds.At the Oxford House World Convention held annually, Oxford Houses throughout the country vote for representatives to the World Council.
- All too often, an abrupt transition from a protected environment to an environment which places considerable glamour on the use of alcohol and drugs causes a return to alcoholic drinking or addictive drug use.
Our Houses
Residents democratically make their voices heard through the individual houses, the Chapters, the World Council and the Oxford House, Inc. The legacy of Oxford House is forever secure as long as the concept, Traditions and system of operations is assured by control of its members through participation in an effective democratic system of organization. For a couple of months in 1975, he found himself Sobriety living on the streets and begging strangers for money before he entered a rehabilitation program.
- Individuals living in each of the Oxford Houses have also been responsible for starting many new groups of Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous having meetings near an Oxford House.
- Once you find a house that has a vacancy, you can call the contact person to set up an interview.
- During the early 1990s dozens of communities sought to close Oxford Houses located in good neighborhoods because local zoning ordinances restricted the number of unrelated individuals that could live together in a single-family home.
- As a general rule formal AA or NA meetings are not held in an Oxford House member who has maintained comfortable sobriety in an Oxford House makes it a practice to attend a lot of AA and/or NA meetings on a regular basis.
- Those democratic principles will also enable the members of a particular Oxford House to take pride in their new found responsibility.
Q. What is the success rate for Oxford House residents?
Oxford House, Inc. is a separate nonprofit organization that provides support and training to the network of houses to help expand the Oxford House Model. More than 80 percent of Oxford House residents remain clean and sober for the long term even though many of them come from backgrounds that have included lengthy alcohol and drug use, periods of homelessness, and incarceration. While Oxford House, Inc. has the sole authority to grant Oxford House charters, the World Council acts as an advisory council to the board. There are over 3500 self-sustaining Oxford Houses in the United States https://ecosoberhouse.com/ and more than 24,000 individuals in recovery living in these houses at any one time during the year. Oxford Houses are democratically self-run by the members who elect officers to serve for terms of six months.
Manuals & Forms
Oxford House members share the house responsibilities and pitch in to do the chores. While research on AA has been limited by the role of anonymity in recovery, the willingness of the Oxford Houses to open their doors to academic research gives us an opportunity to see recovery from addiction in action. Today Oxford House has more than 20,000 residents at more than 3,500 homes across 47 states and several foreign countries. A long-running study by Chicago’s DePaul University shows that people completing one year of residency maintain a sobriety rate as high as 80 percent. The easiest way to find an Oxford House is to use our vacancy locator at oxfordvacancies.com. Once you find a house that has a vacancy, you can call the contact person to set up an interview.
The Oxford House Model provides community based, supportive, and sober living environment.
- Each House represents a remarkably effective and low cost method of preventing relapse.
- It doesn’t matter if they’ve been living in the house for one day or for multiple years.
- More than 80 percent of Oxford House residents remain clean and sober for the long term even though many of them come from backgrounds that have included lengthy alcohol and drug use, periods of homelessness, and incarceration.
- Alcoholics and drug addicts seem to have a tendency to test and retest the validity of any real, potential, or imagined restriction on their behavior.
- A major part of the Oxford House philosophy is that dependency is best overcome through an acceptance of responsibility.
Neither can an Oxford House function if some do not pay their fair share of the costs. An Oxford House Chapter is an additional level of support for individual Oxford Houses. Chapters are important links in making the democratic system of organization underlying Oxford House™ work. The Chapter is the place where all the members of the Oxford House family of individual houses help each other to stay on track and to remain effective.
Electing members to staggered three-year terms of office assures continuity of the 12-member World Council. This assures integrity and correct application of the Oxford House system of operations as documented in the Oxford House Manual© and Oxford House Chapter Manual©. We’ll show you how Oxford Houses work together to form a self-supporting network of houses. Experience of Oxford House has shown that from oxford house 8 to 15 members works very well.
