MUSKEGON, Mich. — A Muskegon nonprofit is getting a major boost to expand housing for people rebuilding their lives after incarceration or addiction.
WATCH: From prison to purpose: Muskegon nonprofit gets $1 million grant to expand sober living homes
Fresh Coast Alliance was awarded a $1 million grant through the Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis, facilitated through ChoiceOne Bank.
The funding will allow the nonprofit to completely remodel four of its five sober living homes, nearly doubling its housing capacity.
Construction on all four homes is expected to be complete within the next year.
The nonprofit offers a range of services, including employment assistance, daily recovery groups and a therapy practice.
Joy Sparks, executive director of Fresh Coast Alliance, said the need for housing has never been greater.
"We are seeing a huge increase in the number of men and women that need housing, that have served a very long sentence in prison," Sparks said.
Jason Vroma spent a total of 23 years in prison across two sentences.
"I was starting from scratch, and a place like Fresh Coast has the tools, to everything from initially getting your driver's license to vocational and employment assistance," Vroma said.
After being released from prison in March of last year, Vroma moved into one of Fresh Coast's sober living homes. Today, he has his own home and works as the organization's facilities manager.
"Jason has continued to grow since he's been out, but the person that he is today is very similar to who I met three years ago when he was incarcerated," Sparks said.
For Vroma, the work he does now feels like more than a job.
"I do feel like this is a calling on my life, that I'm supposed to use my story and my experience to help others," Vroma said.
He says Fresh Coast will always feel like family.
"I love being here. I love the opportunity, and pray that I am always a light to the other participants that are here," Vroma said. "If I keep my eyes focused on God and trust who He has put in my life, the people that He has surrounded me with, and the opportunities He has put before me, it'll all work out amazing."
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