Milestone Recovery

Recovery deserves to be celebrated. So do the people working toward it. 💜

This Recovery Month, we’re pleased to share an interview with Milestone Recovery’s Executive Director, Jayme Villanueva, on HETI’s Conversations in Compassion podcast.

At Milestone, we see the courage it takes to ask for help, begin again, and keep going. This month and every month, we honor that effort and the people who help make recovery possible.

🎧 Listen here to Conversations in Compassion: www.hetimaine.org/conversations-in-compassion/episode/3a3efdb9/celebration

Five partners. One shared commitment to helping our neighbors find a home. 💙

Here’s Carrie, our HOPE representative, showing off the new shirts you’ll see HOPE team members wearing around Portland. The names on her sleeve tell a story we’re proud to be part of:

Milestone Recovery
City of Portland, Maine
Preble Street
Maine Housing
Commonspace

Together, these partners make Project HOPE, Housing Opportunities for People in Encampments, possible.

In 2025, HOPE helped 46 people move directly from living outside into housing. That’s 46 neighbors with a safe place to sleep, a door to close, and space to begin looking ahead.

Progress like this takes people and organizations sharing resources, building trust, and staying committed to a common purpose. We’re proud of Carrie and grateful to every partner working alongside us to help our neighbors find stability and a place to call home.

This is what community working together looks like. This is HOPE.

💪

We are grateful to Ricky, Inc. for a generous donation of backpacks, clothing, and art supplies for Milestone’s Detox program and HOME Team.

This gift has a special meaning. It was made in memory of Nicholas Giacoppo. Nicholas believed in showing up for people in our community with kindness and compassion, and his family continues that spirit of service through Ricky, Inc.

These donated items will go directly to people Milestone serves.

Thank you to Bernadette and Richie Giacoppo and everyone at Ricky, Inc. for helping us remember Nicholas by carrying his generosity forward.

We are honored to say his name and remember the difference he made. ❤️

Always in memory of Ricky and Nicholas.

Learn more about our friends at Ricky Inc. @ www.Rickyinc.org

A little rain won’t stop recovery. ☔💜

Milestone Recovery will be at Rally 4 Recovery today at Payson Park, celebrating recovery, connection, and hope.

We’d love for you to join us! Stop by, say hello, enjoy the music and activities, and be part of a community that believes recovery is possible.

📍 Payson Park, Portland
🕛 Today, 12–3 PM
☔ Rain or shine

Come find the Milestone table. We’d love to see you!

Portland Recovery Community Center

Have reusable grocery bags or clothing to spare? We could use them at Milestone! 💙

We’re collecting clean, gently used clothing (sweats and cozy clothes) and reusable grocery bags for our shelter guests. A fresh change of clothes and a sturdy bag to carry belongings can make someone’s day a little easier.

Prefer to shop and send? Sweatpants and T-shirts are on our Amazon wish list:
https://www.amazon.com/hz/wishlist/ls/6X2F6ECGLTKR

Thank you for helping us keep these everyday essentials available to the people who need them. Sharing this post helps, too!

**A safe place tonight. A chance at a different tomorrow.**

Someone may first know Milestone through a meal and a conversation with our HOME Team. A bed in our shelter. Or a call asking for help with addiction.

Each connection can open the door to more: medically monitored detox, 30-day residential treatment, or extended care with time to practice recovery and rebuild.

These services belong together because getting through today and building a different future both take support.

**Need help for yourself or someone you love?** Explore our programs and learn how to get started:
(https://milestone-recovery.org/programs/)

Please share. Someone you know may need a place to begin.

Every night, 36 men sleep safely inside Milestone’s shelter instead of in doorways, alleys and encampments across Portland.

That matters. But it is only the part of our work you can see.

Behind the scenes, our staff build trust, connect people with addiction treatment, help them pursue housing and support the difficult work of recovery. A safe night can become a conversation. A conversation can become a decision to accept help. And that decision can change the direction of a life.

This is how people move off the streets for good, not simply out of sight for one night.

Learn more or support this work at http://www.milestone-recovery.org.

Recovery is often pictured as one big breakthrough.

More often, it is a series of ordinary, courageous decisions: answer the phone, accept the bed, stay one more day, try again tomorrow.

This Recovery Month, we honor every one of those decisions and every person making them. There is no perfect timeline and no such thing as being beyond hope.

We are here for the next step. 💜