Attachment Files

Article -Chooper’s Guide is Looking to Hire People in Recovery

Summary/Abstract

Our directory, http://www.choopersguide.com went live online in September of 2010. We have about 55,000 pages of information on our site and our search engine rankings have increased 1000% since the launch date.

Content

My name is Adrian Hooper. My partner, Tim Cheney, and I met in Maine a few years ago through our wives. We learned that we had much in common. We were about the same age and we both retired and bought homes in Maine around the same time. More significantly, we discovered that we both left home and were living on the streets in our early teens and we both struggled with addiction for years and relapsed repeatedly. At the worst of our addictions Tim was spending too much time under Grand Central Station in New York City and I in Bang Kwang Prison outside of Bangkok, Thailand. By the grace of God and with the help of other addicts and alcoholics, we now have a combined 40 years of sobriety. The concept of Chooper's Guide was born on a sunny Saturday afternoon in August of 2009. While sitting on Pemaquid Beach in New Harbor Maine we talked about our gratitude for the miracles sobriety has given us and the meaning that service brings to recovery – giving it away to keep it. As we shared our past experiences, we came to the startling realization that, between the two of us, we had collectively been in alcohol and/or drug addiction treatment, of one kind or another, over 45 times. Someone said, “We could write a travel Guide to rehabs.” After having a good laugh the conversation turned more serious. We talked about all the alcoholics and addicts who have died because they didn't know where to look for help, couldn't find a bed in an area treatment center or didn't have access to the right type of treatment. We had seen firsthand that all too often clinicians, medical personnel and other referrers make inappropriate treatment referrals or no referrals at all because they themselves don't have convenient access to credible, comprehensive and up-to-date information resources. We began to explore the concept of building such a substance abuse treatment focused resource – and Chooper's Guide was born. We decided to name it CHOOPER'S GUIDE using the Ch from CHeney and the ooper from Hooper - we thought it had a nice ring to it and would be easy to remember. Read Entire Article in the Attachment PDF below.