Our Story.
Let’s start with what Big Brother is not. If you’ve read the book 1984, we’re not the all-seeing eye watching your every move. Nor are we the reality TV show with cameras in every room of our house. While our home would make for great television, our story comes from much humbler beginnings.
We took the name Big Brother from something a team member’s younger sister said while he was making his Ninth-Step amends:
“During the most important part of my life, I needed you, and you weren’t there. I’m so thankful that you found the people that helped you get sober, because those people gave me my Big Brother back.”
In that moment, Big Brother’s mission was born: to take the blessings sobriety has given us and use them to help people just like us — so the men we serve can become “Big Brothers” once again to the people who matter most.
Our Mission.
At Big Brother, we are 100% alcoholic owned and operated. In any other business that would be a horrific tagline, but we trust you’ll appreciate it here.
We are men who understand what it was like to drink the way you drink, do the things you’ve done, and feel the way you feel. Our weakness is our greatest strength, and it is yours too.
There is nothing special about what we do here. Nobody needs a sober living home to get sober, nor does living in one guarantee you a life of sobriety.
Our mission is simple;
To provide the best environment and opportunities possible conducive to long-term recovery.
In other words; we aim to set the bar so high that feeling the magic of recovery is contagious — to not hold clients hostage into staying sober another day, but have them biting their lip at the thought of getting to do it again tomorrow.
We reiterate the fact that there is never a price tag on recovery, and the spiritual awakening we have experienced is available to anyone and everyone who earnestly seeks it. But if you’re looking for an environment that has it all, look no further than Big Brother.
Our Operation.
We are a men’s-only sober living home based in Elgin, IL. We offer a wide range of recovery services at our locations, such as:
Recovery Program Integration
Regular Drug / Alcohol Testing
Recovery Fellowship Events
Employment, Financial and Educational Mentorship
Structure, Routine & Accountability
Aftercare & Discharge Planning
Regularly hosting outside 12-step meetings
Big Brother is not affiliated with any 12-Step/Recovery programs, but we do offer our space for such meetings to operate independently on the premises. Clients can expect a lifestyle that is busy at times, laid-back in others, brotherhood-oriented, and heavily rooted in the 12-Steps and Traditions.
“There is, however, a vast amount of fun about it all … But just underneath there is deadly earnestness. Faith has to work twenty-four hours a day in and through us, or we perish.”
(“Bill’s Story,” Alcoholics Anonymous, 4th ed., p. 16)
