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The Reminiscences of Kevin McEneaney

The Transcript (Session 1)

The Transcript (Session 2 & 3)

“These are all facilities in the original history of Phoenix House, but you took a core group of people and you placed them someplace else, and in a sense from an organizational structure sample you built around them, but you needed the first yeast to get it started again. It was not a process that, somehow someone said, “Oh wow, this is how you do this.” It was kind of organic. Not, “Oh, you’ve got to have this, otherwise you won’t have the best tomatoes.” You’ve got to go over and seed it with the most positive individuals.”

— Kevin McEneaney

Biography: Raised in a large and close family on Long Island, Kevin McEneaney became a recreational drug user, and then heroin addict. Through arrest and government intervention, McEneaney met Ronald Williams and began a long career at Phoenix House. His early years were in the in the area of public relations, developing outreach and fundraising campaigns, serving as liaison with neighborhoods, and writing education materials for schools. By the 1980s, McEneaney became Clinical Director. Eventually, he became Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Phoenix House Foundation. In 2006, McEneaney left Phoenix House to establish his own consulting service.

Keywords: Phoenix House; New York City; Coney Island; Morris J. Bernstein Institute; Ronald Williams; public relations; board; substance abuse; substance abuse treatment; Mitchell Rosenthal; self-help