• Scott Strode says he had his first beer at 11, and it got worse from there
• Strode, now sober for nearly 30 years, is the founder of The Phoenix, a national nonprofit community with more than 500,000 members
• He says he was inspired after finding sanctuary in outdoor activities and community

Can rock climbing, hiking, and even gardening help addicts stay off drugs and alcohol?

Scott Strode has built a therapy program, based on his own experiences, to show that they can.

“I don’t really believe in the idea that you have to hit rock bottom to change,” Strode, 51, tells PEOPLE. “I think you need a moment of perspective where you’re clear enough in your head to see a change that seems possible.”

That clarity comes from surrounding addicts in a supportive community, ideally engaged in activities that have them interacting with sober people on a regular basis, Strode says.

“When you have a group of damaged people struggling without a nurturing structure built around them, there’s a risk that we drag each other down,” he says. “What became my life’s work was to create a space where we try to lift each other up.”

In 2006, Strode started Phoenix, a national nonprofit sober community now 500,000 strong that offers free programs including CrossFit, outdoor experiences, book clubs and meditation. The only requirement is that the person must be sober for 48 hours before joining.

“I realized there’s something powerful you find at the top of a mountain or a climb, or when you cross a finish line,” Strode says. “I saw people struggling and thought – if I can take you to that place with me, you will see something in yourself.”

He has narrated his personal journey in a memoir, Rise. Recycle. Thriving: How I Got Strong, Got Sober, and Built a Movement of Hope, will be released on January 7.

Strobe says his parents split up when he was young, and he and his siblings shared time with both parents in two completely different environments.

His father, Jack, struggled at times with an unstable lifestyle — including with a home that had only three walls due to an unfinished renovation project — and had untreated mental illness, probably bipolar disorder, Strobe said.

His mother, Marilyn, was the CEO of a public water company and also served as ambassador to Finland in President George W. Bush’s administration and spent most of his time working. Strode’s stepfather was an alcoholic, he says.

Strode says his own path to addiction began when he had his first beer at eleven.

At 15, he says, he admitted himself to a psychiatric hospital — but found less treatment and more enabling. There he met a drug dealer and Strode escalated his alcohol intake and drug use. He began cutting out people in his life who did not participate in his addiction.

“It was this moment when I felt I was hanging out with the wrong crowd and realised I was the wrong audience, says Strode. “And it’s kind of an intense moment. Quietly, your dreams of who you thought you were are taken away.”

He enrolled in a vocational program for dyslexic students held on a boat and began to see the power of the outdoors on his mental health. That led to going to a gym to learn to climb and eventually completing marathons.

He marks April 8, 1998 as the date he got sober.

Strode recognized that fitness, the outdoors, nutrition, wellness, positivity, and community all offered a different way to get sober and could, for some people, bring about a more meaningful and lasting recovery rather than traditional counseling and inpatient care.

Strode now lives in Boston with his wife Kaitlin, who is also in recovery, and their two children, Magnus, 3, and 1-year-old Alice. He says his children will grow up with a completely different life than he and his wife did – that the cycle of abuse will have ended with him and his wife.

“I began to realize that I wasn’t just healing from my addiction, that substance use was actually a symptom of underlying pain,” he says. “It wasn’t like I got sober and all of a sudden I was really in tune with my emotions and able to deal with my old emotional stuff really well.”

The Phoenix, he says, helped him let go of the shame of addiction, to forgive his father and come to terms with the dynamics of his childhood.

“I realize that they had their stories and that forgiveness was when real healing began,” Strode says. “Unfortunately, I think the more institutional structures that deal with addiction, the more they focus on dealing with the symptoms, not the underlying why.”

Like Strode, Gavin Young says he struggled with alcohol in his youth – since he was about 14.

Now at 41, he is a married, sober father of two who is also a testicular cancer survivor. He credits The Phoenix’s unique approach for much of his progress.

“People’s perspective on recovery has changed so much in the time I’ve been in recovery,” says Young. “You never know what might work for someone and what might not work for someone. If there’s only one option — and it might not work — that might signal them to continue drinking or using.”

For many, the idea of ​​spending time doing different activities with people who understand their sobriety journey is appealing. And paying nothing for activities like gym climbing and CrossFit is also a strong attraction.

“I can climb for free and do it with a bunch of sober people,” said Kevin Muenzer, 41. “It takes a village, as silly and exaggerated as that statement is.”

A musician and cinematographer, Muenzer began his flirtation with alcohol to impress a girl when he was just a teenager, he says. He progressed from booze to heroin before finding sobriety through rehab, meditation and a community of support.

In March 2013, he landed in a medical detox with no job, no money, and only one option: go to rehab. He used a community of people in recovery and meditation to stay sober. When he moved from North Carolina to New York City, he says, The Phoenix, which he joined in 2022, helped him maintain his sobriety. He now leads a rope climbing group for the organization.

“Climbing is full of metaphors: You need someone to be there with you, and they have to be safe to get to the top,” says Muenzer.

Strode says the idea for his nonprofit came from a group of people in recovery who shared biking, climbing and other activities.

“There were also people affected by addiction, and that started to grow,” says Strode. “We focused on how we grow Phoenix and fortunately found philanthropists who wanted to be part of the solution and help the country solve this problem.”

Ashley Rath, 36, says she always loved to drink, even from an early age. Her career as a successful New York City chef only helped facilitate that love — which ended up nearly killing her.

“I drank around the clock, 24/7, just to keep myself upright. I lived in complete denial,” Rath tells PEOPLE. “When I went to that (first) rehab, I was really just thinking about saving my career and not saving myself.”

Rath, who has been sober for two years this month, says The Phoenix offered her something different. She attended a class from a well-known tattoo artist, which she says helped rekindle her love of painting and drawing. The former college and high school athlete also began running through the group.

“I’ve met some of my best friends in my life right now through The Phoenix,” says Rath. “I didn’t realize how much my life longed for authentic human connection.”

Connection. Activity. Interaction. It all provides a support system that allows addicts to deal with their behavior and explore why they got to this place in their lives, says Strode.

He says he wants people struggling with addiction to know they are not alone.

“People who feel like they’re in a dark place and it’s hard to find hope, I say it’s out there,” he says. “There was a time in my life that I didn’t think recovery and healing was possible, and I’m so far from who I was because of the people who helped me on my journey.”