Sylvester, 33, needed help. His opiate addiction had left him “hanging on by a thread,” to his family, to his apartment, to his sense of self.

“It wasn’t me anymore,” he says, reflecting on who he had become. While sober, Sylvester worked as a successful information technology technician. But Sylvester relapsed, breaking his two-year sobriety streak and nearly losing everything.

Sylvester had already been a part of the Odyssey House community and so when it was time to deal with his addiction – again – he returned. “I knew I needed help and Odyssey House was the place to do it,” he says.

Recovery has taken on an urgency it didn’t have before, as he is now a proud father of a baby girl. “My recovery affects more than just me. I have to do the right by my daughter.” Though it’s hard to be away from her, Sylvester knows that his sobriety will better both of their futures.

As he resumes his recovery, he now has a better understanding of what that entails: “Recovery is a lifelong process, and the hardest work starts after leaving the program.”