Reclaiming Lives began as one local family’s response to a young woman’s struggle with addiction.  Acting on their motto, “see a need, fill a need” Stephanie Mendenhall and her family felt inspired to reach out and help.  It started small, talking to strangers, offering to buy a meal, listening when no one else would. Then Stephanie met Patti.  Stephanie and Tony Mendenhall invited Patti into their home so she could have a safe, loving space to heal and recover. The Mendenhall Family didn’t realize at this time that this act of love and kindness to help one person would spark a journey of helping many recover from substance use disorder.

Stephanie saw the extraordinary people trapped in addiction. Smart, funny, brilliant people struggling to get free, to breathe, to find peace and to live.  Believing that every person is redeemable and worthy of love, the Mendenhalls began opening their home to others with a similar struggle, providing them a safe place and the hope that comes with recovery.

It’s a family story because the entire family got involved. Tony was on his own search for new meaning and purpose for his life. In doing this work he found himself caring deeply for others and demonstrating unconditional support for those in his community who were struggling. Their sons Marcus and Matt also joined the family’s newfound mission. Marcus began performing outreach with his dad, engaging with those they met struggling with homelessness and addiction to try and assist them.  For their son Matt, it was a more existential experience of reaching into the hearts and minds of people at both their strongest points and their weakest points; learning how to be compassionate, develop relationships and help people reclaim their lives.

The need throughout the city and the successes they were experiencing as a family inspired Stephanie to find a way to shift their mission from helping a few people to helping a community of people recover from addiction. In May 2019, Stephanie founded Reclaiming Lives and opened Recovery Café.  Since its inception, Reclaiming Lives has grown from touching five young people in the Mendenhall family home to now providing hope and long-term support to more than 500 people annually at our facilities in downtown Medford.