Month: September 2026

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Recovery Month 2026 Caden Richardson

Recovery is not measured by perfect days, but by the willingness to keep moving forward.”

Recovery month 2026

“I love the convenience and community that I get from the recovery center. This is where I’ve met all of my friends in LA. When I first started coming here it was scary. Intimidating. I felt like I didn’t belong. I didn’t know anyone, and it was uncomfortable. And then I kept coming every week, and I made a community. Now I come here regularly. I come here Sunday, Thursday, any other day that I need a meeting. I recommend this space to everyone who wants to get sober.”

— Caden Richardson

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Recovery Month 2026 Dustin Allison

Recovery teaches us to notice what once passed us by.

Gratitude turns ordinary moments into reminders of how far we’ve come.

Recovery month 2026

“I like how the Recovery Center is always a safe place to come to when I’m in need. It’s always been very accepting and welcoming every time I’ve relapsed. I’ve relapsed a lot over the past 15 years. I mean, it has relocated and bounced back around. It’s just been a staple of West Hollywood for me. I feel like nothing’s really changed since I first started coming here. I’ve known a lot of people throughout the years, and I see a lot of new people, but no matter what, it’s always been about love and acceptance in this place.”

–Dustin Allison

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Recovery Month 2026 Stephen Blaha

Recovery gives us more than a way out.

It gives us a new way to live, love & contribute.

Recovery month 2026

“I love coming to the Recovery Center for my sobriety. I feel like the people here are friendly and genuine. I love having a place to go, especially every Thursday, where my friends are. I love knowing that the gay community has a foundation here, has a place to come. I live in Burbank, so it’s a little bit of a drive for me. But when I’m feeling like I really need to connect, I come here. I first started doing AT Center, so I was for on the east side for a long time. But now I feel like this is like solid option, apart from my home group. I’ve always liked it here. After remodel, I thought that the rooms were going to be too small, but I think the facility is much nicer.”


— Stephen Blaha

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Recovery Month 2026 Jorge Hidalgo

Recovery makes room for acceptance.

We can honor the past without allowing it to define the future.

Recovery month 2026

“The Recovery Center is a place where I go to reset, reconnect with myself, and feel grounded. I can walk in carrying one attitude or emotion and leave feeling completely different. There is always a shift, and that is one of the reasons this place has become such an important part of my recovery and my overall well-being.

I also appreciate how clean, organized, and intentional the space feels. Recovery meetings can sometimes happen in places that feel a little rough or chaotic, but this center feels like it was truly created for healing and connection. Everything has a place, there is structure, and the environment feels welcoming and cared for.

That structure is especially meaningful to me. In addiction, life can become messy and unorganized, and recovery teaches us how to rebuild with more stability and purpose. This place reflects that. It has helped me become more grounded, more organized, and more structured in my own life.

For me, the Recovery Center is more than just a place to attend meetings. It is a place of healing, growth, connection, and transformation.”

—Jorge Hidalgo

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Recovery Month 2026 Kody Christiansen 

Recovery asks us to show up as we are.

Honesty becomes the ground where lasting change can grow.

Recovery month 2026

“I remember walking down Robertson Boulevard and seeing a group of people outside smoking and talking to each other. They were smiling and laughing, and to me, who was trying to get sober, I didn’t know if I was going to be able to smile and laugh like that because I was so deep in pain. And then when I went in, there was this big, bright room with these rows of chairs. It felt like a community, and they all welcomed me in with open arms. Someone padded a seat and said, “Sit next to me.” And the first speaker spoke their truth so openly and honestly that it was inspiring. It made me comfortable and I kept coming back. I remember getting my first 24-hour chip, and that was such a pivotal moment. I relapsed months after that, and I didn’t get sober until 2015. But I took so much of what I learned in the 60 days that I was sober back in 2008, when I went to the recovery center. I took so much of what I learned from that portion of time into my current sobriety, which is now over 11 years. I think back so positively to that moment and about how there are so many people who are there for you if you need it, and that’s the one thing that I love. The Recovery Center is always there if I ever need it. It’s there for everyone.”


— Kody Christiansen 

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Recovery Month 2026 Ayanna Kapri

Recovery does not have to be walked alone.

We grow stronger when we learn to walk beside one another.

Recovery month 2026

“I think the West Hollywood Recovery Center is very important for us as alcoholics, especially for the newcomers who have somewhere that offers meetings all day. I remember the first time I attended a meeting in my early recovery. It was very intimidating because there were so many people at that meeting. But then it felt like I was at home because people shared stories that were like mine, so I was able to relate. I’m very comfortable with it now. I don’t mind a crowded room. I love attending and getting to know more people. A good memory for me was sharing my story for the first time at a Monday night meeting. That felt really good.”

— Ayanna Kapri

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Recovery Month 2026 Manny Rodriguez

Recovery grows through the small choices we make each day.

Little by little, a new life becomes our own.

Recovery month 2026

“I love everything about the recovery center. I love that there are meetings all day. I love that our community has a safe space where we can find each other. We can create community, and as a result of that, many of us create long-term sobriety.”


— Manny Rodriguez

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RECOVERY MONTH 2026 Zane Younger

Recovery creates space for what was once impossible.

A new life begins to take shape.

Recovery month 2026

“The recovery center has been a staple in my recovery. It’s been a safe space. It’s been a place to meet like-minded people. It sort of brings together, the sober community and the LGBT community in a way naturally, without force. I think that is really special. It’s a place where people are very happy, joyous, and free, but also safe to be vulnerable. Yeah, I think it’s a very important place. I remember I was terrified the first time I came here because I used to sleep in that park when I was homeless, and I slept on the steps of the Log Cabin, so when I first came back, it was scary. I was like, I don’t know who knows me, who sees me. It was powerful to come back housed and sober, and to be able to talk about that, and to be able to talk about how it was strange to be here, and it’s interesting that all my time living on the streets, literally around the corner in the park, I didn’t know what this was, I didn’t know what this building was. So for it to become such a pivotal part of living .”

– Zane Younger

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RECOVERY MONTH 2026 Erica OBannon

Recovery begins with change.

It grows each time we choose a new way forward.

Recovery month 2026

“I love that the Recovery Center is a meeting place for friends and community to come together. It’s a place to establish friendships, a place to keep your sobriety. When I first walked in here, it was light and friendly, a lot of smiley faces. Makes you feel welcome. I just had a birthday. Sometimes when you’re having a bad day, your, I call the itty bitty shitty committee get across? So your head’s in a negative headspace, and I might be thinking about going to the bar and getting a free birthday drink, and instead I come to a meeting and then just share about it. I’ve learned in recovery that a problem shared is a problem halved. And by having the ability to say no to the big shitty committee, aka going bar hopping, I getting a free drink, I come Come to a meeting and share about it and they usually say, hey, me too. I like the ability to have people in recovery to pull you aside if you’re having a bad day and say hey, me too. The Recovery Center is such a great way to do a 180 on a negative day and remind you about gratitude, or remind you about friends that you do have, reminds you about why you’re in recovery in the first place.”

 

— Erica OBannon

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RECOVERY MONTH 2026 Eric Lopez

Recovery is more than a destination.

It is a life being rebuilt, one day at a time.

Recovery month 2026

“The West Hollywood Recovery Center has been a crucial part of my recovery. I have 12 years sober now, and when I was working here in West Hollywood, they had the midnight meetings, and it gave me an opportunity to attend those meetings because I worked the graveyard shift at Pavilions. I came to a meeting every night, and it really helped because of all of the clubs nearby and everything like that in West Hollywood. I was able to come here, and I felt like I was a part of it. It gave me a really solid foundation to get to where I am today. It played a pivotal role in my early recovery. Today, I had probably one of the worst days of the year at work where I felt like I needed relief, and a drink sounded good. But I knew that I was coming to this meeting, and this men’s stag meeting Thursday nights has become my home group. It probably saved me today”

 

— Eric Lopez