Aug. 2—Over the past 40 years, Chris Adams said his job title has often put him in the position of deciding whether or not a person is worth interviewing for a job based on his or her resume alone.

"I was the guy that when that resume came across my desk, and I saw that employment gap, that resume went straight to the trash," Adams said. "I was not going to take a risk on hiring a problem."

Now the owner of his own business, Appalachian Furnishings in Wyoming County, Adams said he has since learned that he was wrong.

He said his change in views was brought on after seeing his young brother battle addition.

At the time, Adams said he was working crazy hours and really had no idea how badly his brother was struggling with addition.

"By the grace of God, we were able to get him into a program and he's doing great, he's doing wonderful," Adams said. "And I realized, you know what, it's time for me to do something about that. I wasn't there for my baby brother like I needed to be, but I can be there for the next guy and for the next guy, or the next person."

To help him accomplish this goal, Adams was one of 10 businesses in the spring of 2021 to sign up for the inaugural class for a program called Communities of Healing.

Funded in 2020 by the Appalachian Regional Commission, Communities of Healing is a four-month training program that helps businesses mold their current operations into social enterprises supporting local people recovering from addictions.

The program is designed on the success of Fruits of Labor, a culinary program that has worked for nine years with those in recovery and 20 years in business.

On Monday, partners and participants of Communities of Healing gathered in Beckley at the new Fruits of Labor café to celebrate the program's spring 2022 graduates, recognize incoming participants and discuss program updates.

The spring 2022 graduates of Communities of Healing were the program's third class and had six participating businesses: Susan Aloi, Jennifer Bostian and Kathy McMurray — Upshur Incubator; Andrew Bailes — God's Way Home; Deiandra Anderson-Blair — Blair's Sweet Treats & More; Sarah Gleason — Lucky Rivers Café & Catering; James Tuckwiller — Mountain Steer Meat Company; and Cassidy Boardman — Legacy Property.

With this latest addition, 24 businesses have now gone through the program and nine more are already signed up for the fall 2022 class.

During the meeting, Adams shared how the program has impacted his business.

"What Communities of Healing did for me, it helped me understand better how I can take that social concept that I had, that desire that I had, and make it fit into a part of a profitable business and not just take away from that business, not just give up one for the other, but actually merge the two together to where they complement each other," he said.

Adams was also accompanied by one of his employees, Chris Puckett, who was hired by Adams in September 2021 and celebrated being one year in sobriety in May.

Puckett said he remembered what it was like getting out of treatment just over a year ago and hoping an employer would be willing to take a chance on him given his history.

"When I got out of treatment, I was broke," he said. "(My wife, two kids and I) were about to lose our house and the car and then the car broke down — it was a mess. But (Adams) hiring me allowed me to get some sort of stability."

Puckett said it was a WorkForce West Virginia program called Empowered Employment that initially led him to work for Adams.

Through Empowered Employment, individuals who experience barriers when seeking employment are placed in partnering businesses where they can learn vital skills, build references and get paid through WorkForce West Virginia.

Now, almost a year later, Puckett said he has not only been able to learn a coveted skill and provide for his family, but he is now a full-time woodworker for Appalachian Furnishings.

He added that he also recently had the privilege of helping to complete a set of trophy cases for a local middle school.

"My son actually goes to that middle school," Puckett said, and the boy said he's going to tell everyone around when they walk by the trophy cases that "my daddy and his boss" built those.

As part of the Communities of Healing program, Adams learned and has since experienced firsthand that not all stories are like Puckett's.

However, Adams said Communities of Healing taught him that relapses and setback are part of the process and should not deter people from helping those in recovery.

"The benefits far outweigh the concerns," Adams said. "It's the same concerns they had when they started a business, but you just got to go for it. And once you go for it, it's like, this is nowhere near as bad as I thought — the rewards, the benefits are just so much bigger, and much bigger than what's stopping you."

He added that people going through recovery have a drive that is unlike others in the workforce.

"They're a little more driven to be successful in the job market then what a lot of people are," Adams said. "...His motivation is a little bit higher than probably mine or yours when we first got into the job market. We were looking to make more money. He was looking for stability, something to ground his family — he was looking for a whole lot more than just a paycheck."

Fruits of Labor President Tammy Jordan, who helped bring Communities of Healing to life after spending years training and hiring individuals in active recovery, said her goal is to reach as many businesses as possible with the program.

"Employing individuals in recovery is my life's calling, and I believe that there's a lot of West Virginia business owners that have a heart and a purpose of the same potential to say, 'I want to just employ one person in recovery,'" Jordan said. "Can you imagine how we would light up the state if every business owner would just employ one?"