The Foundry Way

The Foundry Way is a philosophy and a process. First, why The Foundry Way? In an effort to avoid the pitfall that so many organizations have fallen into, our leadership recognized that we needed to create a framework to build program services upon. A framework that was not staff-dependent or personality-driven would contribute to program continuity. Programming would not become the Executive Director’s way or the Program Director’s way, but, instead, would stay consistent as personnel and personalities changed through the years.

The philosophy of care at The Foundry is Love First and Love Most. How we love distinguishes The Foundry from other ministries and social service providers. Research demonstrates that treatment and recovery have better outcomes when individuals are fully invested in their own life recovery. In short, we avoid hand-outs (although there is a time and place for those) and look for opportunities to provide hand-ups. These learning opportunities foster respect and pride, the healthy boundaries protect our clients and staff while the accountability creates a partnership of healing. 

The Foundry Way philosophy also encompasses a holistic approach to care. Addressing the needs of the whole person; mind, body, and spirit. By providing a long-term, safe recovery community, an individual has the time, resources, and encouragement to address all of the contributing factors to their life-controlling problems.

The process encompasses 5 Foundry Way Program Components: Education, Employment Readiness, Case Management, Counseling, and AfterCare. More than 50 years ago, The Foundry was founded as a traditional soup kitchen/homeless shelter. 25 years ago, we experienced a significant shift from an emergency shelter to long-term residential recovery services, later to be augmented by adding program components supporting the needs of our program participants and to comprehensively address the real-world issues they brought with them to the Foundry.

“The curriculum courses have been truly amazing. It is very easy to open up to everybody here. All the pastors here are very friendly. Everybody is very supportive, from the outreach center to the thrift stores. They are very easy to talk to and get along with. They give you hope that you can live a life after addiction.”

Help the next Cyndi
Give Now