Oklahoma City foundation has goal to help youth recover from alcohol abuse

Mellow, an Oklahoma City resident, outlined several ideas and goals in his manifesto. One of his goals was to help people through sharing his story.

He has since shared his manifesto on his NewsOK.com blog. And he shared his story in a locally produced documentary about youth recovery.

“12: Is There Life After Rehab in Recovery?” is the first part of a documentary series that the 12 Recovery Foundation plans to produce.

The foundation, based in Oklahoma City, has a mission to be a voice for youth recovery.

Jack Sinclair, a founder of the foundation, said the recovery organization plans to produce about four documentaries that each touch on different elements of youth recovery.

The first documentary is shown at schools and in youth groups across the U.S. in hopes of showing young people that recovery is possible.

“We want to be able to offer them through the visual media of documentary the story of these young people who are in recovery and (tell them) ‘You can do it, too, and you can get your life together,'” Sinclair said.

‘Turnaround stories'

Mellow, 25, has been in recovery since he was 15. He has attained sobriety multiple times, most recently on Oct. 13.

At 17, Mellow was arrested on a DUI complaint. “That's when all the madness started,” he said.

There weren't many resources for young alcoholics, he said. Treatment programs were thousands of dollars, some charging upward of $1,000 a day. There were few programs that were looking to genuinely help young people and not just charge their parents a lot of money to “fix” them, Mellow said.

Mellow has a story similar to many of the young people that Sinclair started helping about 14 years ago. In 1998, Sinclair started a 12-step recovery meeting for young people.