Meet our Team

If there had to be one word to sum up Jeff Lewis’s life, it would be significance.

It was the search for significance that brought Jeff to the end of himself and led him to found Second Chances Recovery Homes. And it is his discovery of the significance of serving others that motivates him today in his efforts on behalf of Austin’s recovery community.

By Jeff’s account, he was born to run recovery homes. His mother was a medical professional; his father, a chaplain. Serving people in need — mind, body and spirit – is in his DNA. That his destiny was devotion to other people was not always apparent, however – not to Jeff, or to anyone else. For a long time, the person who’s interests Jeff was most concerned with was himself.

Jeff enjoyed a happy childhood in affluent West Lake Hills until his mother fell ill with cancer. Her death when Jeff was 11 is the kind of life-altering blow many addicts can relate to. Jeff’s father coped with his loss by turning inward and drowning his sorrows in alcohol. Having lost his mother and, for all intents and purposes, his father as well, Jeff became angry and rebellious. At 17 he left home to make his own way in the world, armed with a killer work ethic and driven by the need to prove himself.

A natural businessman, it didn’t take Jeff long to achieve worldly success. He opened his own car dealerships and mobile phone stores and ran his own finance companies. He dove into real estate. During that time, alcohol had become a problem for Jeff, but one that he managed to turn a blind eye to – until the stock market crash of 2008, that is. By 2009, Jeff’s finances had shipwrecked on the country’s economic crisis, along with his illusions that all was well with his soul. Having placed his identity in his accomplishments, he was now lost. Rock bottom saw Jeff waking up from a weekend bender in a hospital bed, so incapacitated that someone else had to change his pants for him. In the words of Twelve Step program, “life had become unmanageable.”

It was time to get serious about overcoming his addiction, Jeff decided. At his next recovery meeting, he asked his peers for the bottom-line solution to his alcoholism: “How do I kick this, fast and for good?”

An AA veteran told him he needed to serve another addicts or alcoholics. “You need to be so close to them,” Jeff was told, “that you wind up with their vomit on your shoes.” “Okay,” Jeff said. “Then that’s what I’m going to do.” And he meant it.

Upon reflecting on what he might have to offer others, Jeff realized he could turn the properties he already owned into sober living homes. He walked away from the other companies he’d built to sustain his ego and dedicated himself 100% to serving other addicts and alcoholics.

Second Chances Recovery Homes opened its doors to recovering addicts in November of 2011. Since then, SCRH has served over 1,000 people suffering from substance abuse disorders, seen 30 individuals cured of hepatitis C, and witnessed the delivery of 8 babies. Jeff is not just the face of Second Chances. He is a felt presence to SCRH residents, ready with a hug, a listening ear, sound advice, and active help.

Jeff’s vision for the future? “To serve more and do more.” When you’ve given up the search for significance, serving others because both you and they are significant already, there really is no limit to how many lives you can touch.   

Jeff Lewis lives in Austin, Texas, with his beautiful wife Bernie and 15-year-old son. He calls the Austin Vineyard Church, where the doors are always opened wide for SCRH residents, his spiritual home. 

Brandi Whitaker believes helping women get sober is her life’s calling. Having walked the long and difficult road of recovery herself, she wants to pass on the help and encouragement she has received. 

The tragic loss of her sister in a car accident sent Brandi tumbling into addiction in her late teens. After a few years spent “off the rails,” as she describes it, she got sober and eventually married and had a family. A mother of four beautiful children, she was involved in the local PTA and booster club, her days filled with homework and meetings and football practices. Then one day, out of the blue, she was confronted with the unexpected opportunity to use drugs again. Within six weeks of giving in to that temptation, Brandi had lost her car, house, husband and kids. The two-and-a-half years Brandi spent living on the streets following this catastrophic downturn were the darkest of her life. 

Poor decisions ultimately landed her in jail — an act of “divine intervention” for Brandi, who says she was forced to finally sit down and “figure things out.” She began attending chapel while incarcerated, and a chaplain there helped her to reconnect with her faith, remember her true identity, and grab hold of her life’s purpose. A series of events Brandi describes as miraculous led to her early release from jail. With no earthly possessions and nowhere to go, Brandi was taken in at Faith Home, formerly a Second Chances affiliate, where she made huge strides in her recovery and became a model resident. Through walking out the 12-Steps, faithfully attending church, and regularly surrounding herself with others in recovery, Brandi began living — really living — again. 

Today, Brandi is a strong and vibrant woman with a huge heart for those still struggling with addiction. She brings a message of hope about restored identity, purpose, and relationships to the women at Second Chances Recovery Homes. It’s a message she can preach with conviction because she’s lived it.