Adam’s older sister was six months sober when she asked him to help open a home for women in recovery.
Sarah had struggled with opioid use disorder for 10 years. Substance use issues ran in the family.
As a child, Adam had felt little sympathy. He didn’t understand what it was like to be chemically dependent. He saw the toll it took on his mother as she drove around until five in the morning to make sure his siblings were all okay.
He felt substance use issues had robbed him of parts of his childhood.
But as he grew up, he saw how his mother’s love and support helped save his siblings' lives. He came to understand how much OUD was a brain disease, not a moral failing. He realized how important it was to be there for loved ones in recovery.
He wanted to be there.
So when Sarah came to him, asking to turn his house into a recovery home for women, he listened to her pitch.
It wasn’t an easy decision to make. He’d worked for years to afford that home, and now he wouldn’t be able to live in it. But he recognized his sister’s fierce motivation.
So he agreed. Savage Sisters, a housing and harm reduction nonprofit, was born.
Six years later, they’ve now grown to include 10 homes and 42 outreach programs, and do hundreds of overdose prevention and reversal trainings a year that serve Philadelphia and the surrounding counties.
Together, Adam and Sarah fight the stigma and create pathways to long-term recovery in their community.
