“It’s a beautiful life,” Craig Pickos said of his recovery journey. Pickos (NCPRSS, RYT) is Polk for Recovery’s founder and executive director. The nonprofit is a Recovery Community Organization (RCO), a “grassroots movement led by and for those in recovery from substance use, mental health, or other obstacles to wellness.” September is National Recovery Month. In a lead-up to the observance of this month, which is held to “educate Americans that substance use treatment and m

A sandy path of broken glass lined on either side by discarded children’s toys, shopping carts, tires, and other refuse leads to a hovel hamlet. To get there, you must cross a bridge overlooking a canal that jet skiers and boaters take every day, unaware that yards away is a homeless camp with dozens of people who can’t secure affordable housing, earn a living wage, are without family, struggling through mental illness, or in active addiction. Though ramshackle, this tent cit

Twenty-nine-year-old Russell was born in Fort Lauderdale. He was an only child for nine years before his little brother came along. The siblings didn’t exactly get along, but that’s changing now. “It was good at first, then it got bad, and it’s slowly working itself to where we’re starting to get along again,” he said. As a kid, he was into Hot Wheels, sports cards, and the WWE. As he got older, things got harder. Life no longer revolved around toy cars and favorite wrestlers