Our State Convention has ended, stay tuned for next year’s!
Our First Tradition
Oxford House™ has as its primary goal the provision of housing and rehabilitative support for the alcoholic and drug addict who wants to stop drinking or using drugs and stay stopped.
Our Purpose
Oxford House is a concept in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction. In its simplest form, an Oxford House describes a democratically run, self-supporting and drug free home. Parallel to this concept lies the organizational structure of Oxford House, Inc. This publicly supported, non-profit 501(c)3 corporation is the umbrella organization which provides the network connecting all Oxford Houses and allocates resources to duplicate the Oxford House concept where needs arise.
Oxford Houses are self-run because
- Recovering individuals value mutual support.
- Self-management is cost-effective.
- Self-reliance leads to self-respect.
- Self-respect validates sobriety.
- Long-term recovery requires sobriety comfortable enough to avoid relapse.
- Comfortable sobriety takes time to develop.
- Self-financing avoids dependency.
- Renting houses avoids wealth accumulation.
- Absence of wealth accumulation keeps focus on recovery and quality control.
- Quality control requires standardized operations.
- Standardized operations requires knowledge transfer and rigorous self-monitoring.
- Good organization encourages quality control.
Frequently Asked Questions
Oxford Houses are democratically self-run by the residents who elect officers to serve for terms of six months. In this respect, they are similar to a college fraternity, sorority, or a small New England town. Officers have fixed terms of office to avoid bossism or corruption of egalitarian democracy.
Any recovering alcoholic or drug addict can apply to get into any Oxford House by filling out an application and being interviewed by the existing members of the House. The application is then considered by the membership of the House and if there is a vacancy and if 80% of the members approve, the applicant is accepted and moves in. If an applicant does not get voted into one house he or she should try another house in the area. The Oxford House website contains an application and information about How to Apply to live in an Oxford House.
A recovering individual can live in an Oxford House for as long as he or she does not drink alcohol, does not use drugs, and pays an equal share of the house expenses. The average stay is about a year, but many residents stay three, four, or more years. There is no pressure on anyone in good standing to leave.
