Tim Robinson, CEO of Kentucky’s largest substance treatment provider, says his for-profit company “had to grow to survive.” He was photographed June 27 at Addiction Recovery Care’s headquarters in Louisa. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Matthew Mueller)
LOUISA — Around the office at Addiction Recovery Care , or ARC, Vanessa Keeton is still known as “Client One” — marking her status as the first client of the first recovery center the organization opened as a group home in Lawrence County.
But her official title is vice president of marketing for ARC, where she has worked since 2012, a little more than a year after she entered the program known as Karen’s House — choosing it over jail for a string of drug and alcohol-related offenses.
“Dec. 2, 2010, that was my first day,” she said. “That’s a day I’ll never forget as long as I live. That’s the day that everything changed.”
ARC, too, has changed dramatically since it started as a treatment home for women run by volunteers, based largely on Bible study and prayer.