Patrick exudes a calm, patient energy. At the woodshop, he’s hoping to use his new skills to build furniture for his future home, and eventually, his children. One of his goals is to get back into their everyday lives. 

An empathetic listener, Pat’s long-term goal is to become a recovery coach to help people with alcohol and drug addictions. That passion came out of his own struggle. 

“The 12th step of AA is serving. It’s the best way to keep myself sober. And, God’s commandment of love God and love your neighbor. It’s the best way you can serve. If I can get paid and make a living doing that, I think I can live the rest of my life that way.”

He started classes for counseling about four years ago, but relapsed, dropped out of school, and ended up in prison after a DWI. “I knew (counseling) was what I needed to be doing, I just got the wake-up call by going and serving in jail, spent some time thinking hard about it and making those specific goals.”

He recently got funding for classes that will help him become a Certified Peer Support Specialist, when the South Carolina Department of Human Services happened to reach out to Soteria to see if there was anyone interested. “There’s somebody looking out for me, and he’s using Soteria to help me get connected.”