Chad Jacobs

Chad Jacobs has truly seen it all. As someone who has both recovered from his own debilitating addiction and who also works within the very system which helped him, Chad can both sympathize with and be of help to those who walk through the doors of Center for Change.

Chad was raised with a mentality of compassion and love first. He began drinking when he was 16, but it quickly became a problem. The party ‘substances’ began to escalate; first with alcohol, then marijuana, cocaine, crack cocaine, and eventually dabbling in meth, pills, and whatever he could get his hands on.

After graduating high school, Chad struggled to hold down a job, largely due to his addictions. Chad explains, “they could almost always smell the booze when I showed up to work.” He got his first DUI at the age of 20, when he hit a parked car and flew through his windshield. By his own admission, “that woke me up a little bit, but just enough to quit marijuana. Nothing else.”

Chad continued to pursue the next high with his multi-substance addiction. He received his second DUI a few years after the first, after leaving the bar. He still didn’t see any problems and received his third DUI when he fell asleep at the wheel and went through a house. As he was close to his own home, he simply got out of the car and went to his own bed, where the police had to come and pull him out of his bed to arrest him.

At this point in his life, Chad was barely hanging on. He explains, “I had a rented home in Haysville, but was behind on rent. It was dark and cold in the house as I couldn’t pay my bills or support my habit and began stealing and forging checks from family members.” When he was arrested, he received a felony charge as he got his third DUI in five years, and this time he went to prison: 7 months in county, 6 months in work release.

By this point in his life, Chad had hit a low point. When he was put on work release, he also was required to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. At this point, Chad was only attending out of habit, and was always, in his own words, “last one in, first one out,” as he was still very much in denial. But to his very surprise, it was the AA Meetings that finally brought Chad to his knees, literally. He explains, “God finally got ahold of me, and my compulsion just changed.”

Chad took his last drink on August 7, 2002. After wrestling with his addiction for over a decade, he was ready to truly begin living his life. He received his associates from Butler Community College in Drug and Alcohol Counseling and immediately began working in the drug and alcohol recovery field, eventually landing at Center for Change, where he has now worked for 10 years.

Chad’s quality of life now contrasted with his life 24 years ago is staggering. Whereas before he was essentially homeless, jobless, and barely functioning, now he is married to his wife Angela, full of purpose in helping others change their lives through his role at Center for Change, and dedicated to living each day knowing that he’s truly blessed. His message to others who are knee deep in their struggles is: “Don’t give up. It will take work and action on your part, but there are people ready to help you when you ask.”

Caption under tattoo photo: As a celebration of being 12 years sober (when he was clean for as long as he used), Chad got his first tattoo. The tattoo depicts the AA symbol of a triangle, which represents the AA’s legacies of Recovery, Unity, and Service, and a circle which stands for the whole world of Alcoholics Anonymous. To this symbol is added a camel, an animal which stores its water inside of its humps, and goes to its knees twice a day to collect the daily fill of water. Like the camel, Chad goes to his own knees twice a day for his own ‘water,’ to ask God for help in the morning, and to thank Him for another day at night.