Rick DelValle, who founded New Beginning and Redemption House, a group of sober living facilities in New Haven, said the team can bring those in need to him.

“We can get them here, get them in a safe place, get them in an environment of recovery with peer support, that’s when change can really happen,” he said.

Every Saturday our sister non-profit organization "Redemption House," takes our clients out into the community and we work to make a difference cleaning our streets. We find that this gives our clients a sense of purpose, belonging and positive outlook on life. Check us out in the New Haven Independent!

Founder Rick Delvalle at the CT State Capitol, testifying before Members of the Judiciary Committee, in support of The Clean Slate Initiative.

“All the drugs were gone but I didn’t die,” DelValle said, exactly 12 years later, as he took a break from painting the interior of the four-story Victorian Gothic “Recovery Mansion” in Fair Haven Heights, one of five A New Beginning Recovery houses that he and his wife own and operate in New Haven…”

DelValle said he’s luckier than most, because he found an employment path and future that many he counsels have not, because their criminal records have not been wiped clean.

“When a man is in recovery and he has a job he feels good about himself,” DelValle said. “Passing clean slate will benefit many individuals.”