Stacey Brown is a veteran that served in the Marine Corps, and is West Palm Beach born and raised. His father was a Vietnam Vet who came home from service with a bullet in his back and PTSD, but it went undiagnosed. As a result, his dad was an alcoholic upon his return home, but become sober over 25 years ago.
When Stacy came back home from his service as a Marine, he was having night terrors, and could only sleep for about 4 hours at a time, he took to drinking, smoking and chasing women to combat what was later diagnosed as PTSD.
One night Stacey’s father who had now been sober 25 years, came to his room, “son look, this is a whole new world, somebody is going to end up shooting you.”
Roy Foster, the founder of Faith, Hope, Love, Charity, Inc. and Stand Down House wasdoing outreach at the VA one day, and met Stacey at the homeless resource trailer. Mr. Foster, a veteran himself who overcame addiction and homelessness, understood what Stacey was going through. He asked Stacey “Would you like to give a different way a try” to deal with your PTSD and addiction. “Yes!” Stacey replied and he went to Stand Down the very next day, September 21, 2004 . The programs at Stand Down have been very influential in everything he has done since then.
Upon arriving, the staff just asked him to rest, they gave him a room and he slept for the first time for 72 hours. Next, they would just drink coffee and tell stories. Stacey stayed at Stand Down House for 62 days and it changed the course of his whole life; he was connected to resources to receive medical care and assistance to a trade school to become a mechanic. He was told that “If you believe in you, I believe in you.” The staff and programs at Stand Down benefited Stacey in a way that he felt was very hard to find previously. He felt that he was understood and that he was met where he was at, at that low point in his life.
While at Stand Down, he met is wife, she was working at the VA, they have now been married for 22 years. Stacey did go back to live with his dad for a little over a year while he went to school. He then went on to obtain his associate’s degree in human services with addiction studies specialization and is now an on-site counselor and Case Manager at Stand Down House. He is currently working on his bachelor’s degree in addiction studies specialization. Stacey is proud to be working at Stand Down, feeling that he is giving back to the community with his lived experience and helping other veterans to overcome PTSD and addiction.
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