Jim Rouches

Jim first heard of Harvest House in 2005 from a fellow inmate at Lee County jail, and the rest was history. He finally found a healing home after years of substance abuse and incarceration. He started working with Harvest House in 2007 as a manager of employment and now, as the Director of Program Services, he leads a team of nine employees who serve 120 men and women in residential recovery annually. Jim is truly a part of what makes the Harvest House approach so special and unique, especially when it comes to residential recovery.

A hybrid between a halfway house and inpatient treatment, the Freedom program is designed to meet the individual client’s needs. We know that the longer a client is addicted, the more time necessary for a sustainable recovery. We don’t believe there is anything inherently wrong with our clients or that they need to be ‘reformed’, so we’ve taken a transformational approach to recovery instead. We see that there is a transformation waiting to happen, and we intend to serve as catalysts. Based on these unique principles, Jim created his own technology-assisted care/recovery curriculum throughout our state and is an essential piece of the recovery-based care offered here at Harvest House. He is also a member of the Sarasota Criminal Justice Commission, the Sarasota Mental Health/Substance Abuse Planning Council, and a Pastor at the Harvest Recovery Church. To hear more from Jim’s testimony, click here.

“The most effective piece of what Harvest House does is how we serve and care for people in our community when it seems like no one else can serve and care for them– those with no or limited resources like money, insurance, support, a plan, or hope. I know what that feels like, and if I deserved a chance, I know our clients do too.” Many times, the clients suffering from addiction and the family or community members suffering on the sidelines both believe that somehow, the addiction and consequences of it are solely the client’s fault, or that blame and surprise interventions will be some kind of breakthrough catalyst for change. While choice and responsibility are crucial elements of a sustainable independent life, and we teach clients this daily in our recovery curriculum, their past choices and consequences do not have to haunt them forever with the conscious choices they can make today.

Jim knows that our work in residential recovery is far from done, but he remains optimistic about the potential impacts of Harvest House in the future. “Aside from watching lives restored, every new property that we open fills me with hope and anticipation for the transformation to come.”