Fellowship House

01/14/2026

Empathy feels.
Compassion moves.
Sympathy watches from the sidewalk.

In recovery and in life, feeling someone’s pain isn’t enough. What matters is what you do with it. Empathy lets you resonate. Compassion makes you act. That difference can change a life.

New blog up. Short read. Deep human stuff.

When I was sixteen, I found myself in a reformatory boot camp, South Mountain, Pennsylvania. It was a strange place to end up for a kid who liked oil painting, pot smoke, and the music of the sixties and seventies. Overnight, I was stripped of all that. My head was shaved. I was woken at 3 a.m. to p...

01/07/2026

The Mandala Room isn’t about comfort—it’s about truth.

Where guilt gets named, shame loosens its grip, and recovery gets real.
Read the latest blog and step into the work that actually changes lives.

When I was sixteen, I found myself in a reformatory boot camp, South Mountain, Pennsylvania. It was a strange place to end up for a kid who liked oil painting, pot smoke, and the music of the sixties and seventies. Overnight, I was stripped of all that. My head was shaved. I was woken at 3 a.m. to p...

12/31/2025

Happy holidays from Fellowship House 🎄

This month’s newsletter is live🦉full of growth, gratitude, graduations, and the quiet magic that happens when people reclaim their lives together. As we head into the new year, a reminder worth keeping close: reclaim your attention, be kind, and stay connected.

Here’s to what we’ve built🎬and what’s coming next.

12/23/2025

A season of reflection, repair, and quiet courage.
Our latest blog explores what the holidays reveal about connection, generosity, and the human need for one another—without losing our critical faculties along the way.

Wishing everyone a happy, safe, and meaningful holiday season. Take care of yourselves and each other.

When I was sixteen, I found myself in a reformatory boot camp, South Mountain, Pennsylvania. It was a strange place to end up for a kid who liked oil painting, pot smoke, and the music of the sixties and seventies. Overnight, I was stripped of all that. My head was shaved. I was woken at 3 a.m. to p...

12/12/2025

Hey everyone🎅🏼
I hope you all had a great time. It genuinely means a lot to see you outside a clinical setting, just being people together, laughing, talking, practicing real life. That’s not a side activity. That is the work.

Moments like these are where meaning starts to reappear—where interest, connection, and even joy begin to feel possible again. Recovery isn’t just about stabilizing; it’s about stepping back into life with intention and dignity.

The staff at Fellowship House are deeply grateful for the trust you place in us. We take our responsibility seriously and show up every day committed to doing our best, learning, improving, and building a community that supports real, lasting outcomes in your lives.

We’re proud of the work you’re doing and we’re honored to walk alongside you.

12/11/2025

I hope to see many of you tonight at our Fellowship House Christmas Party at the Trolley Museum, 6 to 8 PM.
Friends, alumni, families, and the vendors who have stood with us. Everyone is welcome.

We will have light fare from Constantino’s, and the night will glow with music from the Irish Fiddlers Trio featuring Roy Williams, Mark Wodiak, and friends. Children are more than welcome. Let them run among the trains and the twinkle lights.

Tonight is also the first time we introduce the Fellowship House Foundation, our nonprofit that quietly carries the financial weight many of our men simply cannot.
The Foundation absorbs the cost of recovery housing when rent falls out of reach. It covers the co-payments that can come weekly and feel overwhelming for the life-saving medications and treatments that even private insurance does not fully support.

For some men this support lasts three months. For others it may be six.
Whatever the timeline, this is the bridge that keeps them alive long enough to find their footing.
This is where housing becomes medicine.

If you feel moved to support that mission, donations and checks may be made payable to:
Fellowship House Foundation
136 Willow Ave
Olyphant, PA 18447

Come celebrate. Come reconnect. Come help us hold the line for the men who are fighting their way back.

See you tonight.

11/27/2025

Volunteer Spotlight: Chris Scrimalli

Some people give a little. Chris shows up with a big bird and 32 full Thanksgiving dinners like it’s nothing but love.

Tuesday night, he cooked for our guys — fresh vegetables, full plates, the whole warming-the-soul routine — and delivered it all to the house as a surprise. The staff lit up. The community lit up. And the men felt what Northeastern Pennsylvania does best: real connection, real generosity, real recovery in motion.

Chris is a brother in long-term recovery, and he brings that lived fire with him. For many of our men who aren’t from this region, he’s one of the first reminders that NEPA has one of the strongest, most sincere recovery communities in the country.

Chris, we love you. We’re grateful for you.
Happy Thanksgiving, brother.

11/26/2025

Gratitude isn’t just a feeling — it’s a practice that rewires the way we carry our days. This week’s blog sits right in that pocket: the small rituals, the unexpected grace, the moments that soften the edges and give recovery its oxygen. If you need a five-minute reset or a reminder of what still shines, give it a read.

When I was sixteen, I found myself in a reformatory boot camp, South Mountain, Pennsylvania. It was a strange place to end up for a kid who liked oil painting, pot smoke, and the music of the sixties and seventies. Overnight, I was stripped of all that. My head was shaved. I was woken at 3 a.m. to p...

11/21/2025

Special thanks to our friends and neighbors at MyCIL.

They’re not just a community partner—this is the crew that opens their doors for our weekend programming and shows what service looks like in real time.

Today, their team spent the day at the Training Center preparing a full Thanksgiving spread… and then surprised Fellowship House with an early feast of turkey, mashed potatoes, and all the comfort that comes with generosity done right.

Social work isn’t just a profession here—it’s a lifestyle. It’s woven into the region, carried by people who give without hesitation.

A heartfelt thanks to Tim Moran, the leadership at MyCIL, their unbelievable staff, and especially Sue. Your work is seen. Your kindness lands where it matters. And it gives this community its meaning.