ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the people and places, methods and operations, ideas and meanings that make up the two programs at the heart of this book. It calls the programs Recovery House and Redemption House. Redemption House is a faith-based Christian discipleship center that serves homeless men, most of whom are seriously involved in illicit drug use. Redemption House is a privately operated, non-profit, evangelical Christian organization, officially licensed by the state of New York as a men's shelter. Like Redemption House, Recovery House is part of a not-for-profit charitable foundation. The Recovery House Foundation, Incorporated is credentialed as a drug treatment facility under the auspices of the Office of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services of New York State. The chapter presents the data of treatment and training that were collected primarily at the two separate rehabilitation programs by means of participant observation, the essential method of the ethnographer.
