For the very first blog post on the new Prodigal Road Peer Support website, I cannot think of a better place to begin than with what God is doing right now in the peer recovery support movement across Texas.
On May 20, 2026, Baylor Rayne, our House Manager, and I traveled from Kerrville to Austin for the Peer Visioning Summit hosted by HHSC at the J.J. Pickle Research Campus of The University of Texas. We joined peer support providers, leaders, trainers, advocates, and recovery professionals from across the state to talk about the future of Peer Recovery Support in Texas.
And let me say this clearly: the future is full of life.
There was something powerful about walking into a room filled with people who understand the work, believe in the work, and have given their lives to walking alongside others. The atmosphere was professional, but it was also warm, familiar, and deeply mission-driven. It felt like a gathering of people who were not just talking about systems, services, credentials, and programs — they were talking about people, stories, dignity, purpose, and transformation.
For me personally, it was also a full-circle moment.
Before Prodigal Road Ministries became what it is today, I had roots in the peer support movement in Texas. Years ago, I worked with Young People in Recovery, helped with early Recovery Capital efforts, and crossed paths with people who were carrying the vision for peer support before it became as recognized as it is today. Then I stepped away from the peer support world for several years while working as a nurse.
Coming back into this field now has been both humbling and exciting.
The field has grown. The conversations have grown. The opportunities have grown. The need has grown.
But the heart of peer support is still the same: one person with lived experience reaching across to another person and saying, "You are not alone. There is a way forward. I will walk with you."
That is exactly where Prodigal Road Peer Support begins.
Why this summit mattered to Prodigal Road
This summit came at the perfect time for us.
Prodigal Road Ministries has always been built on the belief that transformation happens through faith, relationship, accountability, community, and grace. Our work with men recovering from trauma, addiction, abuse, neglect, and incarceration has never been about simply providing a place to stay. It has been about creating a pathway for healing, discipleship, recovery, responsibility, and purpose.
That is where the traditional social model of recovery and Christian discipleship meet.
The social model teaches us that recovery happens in community. It reminds us that people heal through connection, shared responsibility, peer leadership, mutual support, safe environments, and meaningful roles within a recovery-centered culture.
Christian discipleship teaches us that transformation happens through surrender, truth, grace, accountability, identity in Christ, spiritual growth, and walking with others as we learn to live a new life.
At Prodigal Road, we believe these two models do not compete with each other. They strengthen each other.
Peer support says, "I have been there, and I will walk with you."
Discipleship says, "Follow Christ with me as we grow, heal, and become who God created us to be."
Together, they create something deeply powerful: a recovery community where men are not treated like projects, problems, or statistics, but as sons, brothers, leaders, and future mentors.
Baylor Rayne and the importance of leadership in the house
Having Baylor Rayne with me at the summit mattered.
As our House Manager, Baylor is not just helping manage a residence. He is helping carry culture. In a recovery residence, the house manager is often one of the closest examples of what recovery, accountability, service, and leadership look like in daily life. The house itself becomes more than a building. It becomes a classroom, a training ground, a family system, and a place where the principles we talk about must be lived out in real time.
That is peer support in action.
It happens at the kitchen table. It happens in hard conversations. It happens when someone is struggling and another man refuses to give up on him. It happens when accountability is offered with love instead of shame. It happens when a resident begins to believe that his story is not over. It happens when the man who once needed support becomes the man who now offers support.
Baylor being in Austin was a reminder that Prodigal Road Peer Support is not just an idea on a website. It is connected to the daily work already happening in the lives of men in our community.
What we heard in Austin
At the summit, we heard conversations about curriculum, training, certification, supervision, ethics, workforce development, continuing education, funding, and the need for strong peer support systems across Texas.
But underneath all of those topics was a deeper question:
How do we keep peer support true to what it is?
That question matters.
As peer support grows, there is always a risk that it can become too clinical, too system-driven, too disconnected from lived experience, or too far removed from the people it was created to serve. Peer support must remain grounded in relationship, mutuality, dignity, choice, recovery, and hope.
That does not mean we reject professionalism. It means we build professionalism without losing the heart.
At Prodigal Road Peer Support, that is one of our core commitments. We want to honor the standards, ethics, training, documentation, and best practices of the peer support field while staying rooted in the lived experience, spiritual conviction, and community-based relationships that make peer support so powerful.
We believe peer support should be excellent. We believe it should be ethical. We believe it should be well-trained. We believe it should protect confidentiality and dignity. We believe it should respect the person's own recovery journey. We believe it should build recovery capital, not dependency. We believe it should be filled with grace and truth.
And we believe it should make room for faith.
The bridge we are building
Prodigal Road Peer Support exists to build a bridge.
A bridge between traditional recovery housing and peer recovery support. A bridge between social model recovery and Christian discipleship. A bridge between lived experience and professional development. A bridge between the church and the recovery field. A bridge between men coming out of incarceration, addiction, trauma, and brokenness — and the life of purpose God still has for them.
This is why our new website matters.
Prodigal Road Peer Support is being built as a hub for individuals, families, churches, recovery residences, peer specialists, ministries, and community partners who want to understand and strengthen recovery support.
Through this new platform, we want people to learn about:
- Peer Recovery Support Services
- In-person and telehealth peer support
- Recovery planning and recovery capital
- Group support and group facilitation
- Curriculum development
- Consulting for churches, ministries, nonprofits, and recovery residences
- Peer support supervision
- Training and continuing education opportunities
- Partner resources and referral pathways
This is not just a new page on the internet. It is a new front door for the work God has been building in us for years.
A return and a recommissioning
For me, Austin felt like both a return and a recommissioning.
It reminded me of where I came from in the peer support movement. It reminded me of the people who helped build this field in Texas. It reminded me of the fire that was lit in me years ago — the fire to see people with lived experience step into leadership, purpose, advocacy, and service.
But it also reminded me that Prodigal Road Ministries has a specific assignment.
We are not called to copy everyone else. We are called to bring what God has placed in our hands.
That means we bring faith. We bring lived experience. We bring structure. We bring accountability. We bring compassion. We bring discipleship. We bring recovery principles. We bring community. We bring the belief that no man is too far gone for the grace of God.
We also bring a deep respect for the peer support field and the people who have carried this work across Texas for many years. It was an honor to sit in the room with them, listen, reconnect, learn, and share what God is doing through Prodigal Road Ministries in Kerrville.
Why this matters now
Texas needs strong peer support.
Our communities need people who can walk with others through addiction, trauma, reentry, grief, family breakdown, spiritual confusion, and the hard work of rebuilding life. Churches need better tools to support recovery. Recovery residences need strong peer leadership. Peer specialists need supervision, training, and encouragement. Families need hope. Men coming out of incarceration need pathways, not just warnings. People in early recovery need more than information — they need relationship.
That is why we are stepping forward.
Prodigal Road Peer Support is our commitment to the next season of this ministry. We are building something that honors the traditional recovery community, strengthens the peer support workforce, supports churches and organizations, and keeps Christ at the center of transformation.
We believe recovery is more than abstinence. We believe recovery is more than housing. We believe recovery is more than compliance. We believe recovery is a road — and no one should have to walk it alone.
The road ahead
As we left Austin, I felt encouraged, challenged, and energized.
Encouraged because peer support in Texas is alive and growing.
Challenged because the need is great and the work must be done with excellence.
Energized because Prodigal Road Peer Support has a role to play.
This first blog post is more than an update. It is a marker.
It marks the beginning of a new platform, a new conversation, and a new way for Prodigal Road Ministries to serve individuals, families, churches, organizations, and communities across Texas.
To everyone who has prayed for this ministry, supported this work, referred someone to us, walked with our residents, partnered with us, or believed in the mission: thank you.
To the peer support providers we met in Austin: thank you for carrying the work.
To Baylor Rayne: thank you for helping carry the culture of Prodigal Road in the house and on the road.
And to every person wondering whether recovery, restoration, and a new life are still possible: yes. They are.
The road is not always easy.
But there is grace for the journey. There is community for the journey. There is support for the journey. There is purpose on the other side of the pain. And at Prodigal Road, we are committed to walking that road with you.
Welcome to Prodigal Road Peer Support.
The road ahead is full of hope.
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