How the Boston Red Sox are helping overcome addiction through community
The Boston Red Sox teams up with The Phoenix, a free, sober active community, to use the transformative power of sport to help people heal from addiction.
Founded by Scott Strode, The Phoenix creates a unique and new sense of community for those recovering from addiction and substance use disorders though crossfit style workouts, classes, and outdoor activities. With each workout, wall-climb, and bike ride, participants begin to find their identity and sense of self outside their addiction and embrace the pride in what they have overcome. That’s one of the most unique aspects of The Phoenix community. They build pride in sobriety. Members of the community wear shirts with the word SOBER emblazoned on it each day.
“For the first time, I think we can really change the way the nation thinks about addiction.”
Scott Strode, founder of The Phoenix
In the first 10 years, The Phoenix grew to seven cities and served 26,000 people. After just two years of partnering with the Stand Together community, The Phoenix quadrupled in size to 28 locations, including a new flagship gym on Boston’s “Methadone Mile,” a place that’s become a symbol for the country’s opioid crisis.
As a result of their explosive growth, the Phoenix has partnered up with the Red Sox and together they are sparking a national conversation about the addiction crisis and raising awareness of effective solutions like The Phoenix.
This is just the beginning of a broader effort of the Stand Together community helping The Phoenix scale to more cities across the country, so that together more people can rise in recovery.
Learn more about Stand Together’s issue areas.
