Mayor Annise Parker invited John Mills, CPA to join the Houston Recovery Center board in 2015, where he currently serves on the board’s Finance Committee. With a background in finance and accounting, as well as 11 years of employment at Star of Hope Mission, Mills was a natural candidate.
Mills is passionate about serving on our board for a number of reasons. He understood that the needs of those with substance use and mental health concerns would continue to increase in Houston.
“With all that I learned at Star of Hope, I knew such an initiative would be important to our community,” Mills relates. “Nothing can create more gratitude in your heart than seeing and addressing first-hand the needs of others.”
Giving back to the community is a large part of his gratefulness. Mills says his service on the Houston Recovery Center board is an extension of how important caring for others really is.
As a member of the financial committee, he has the vantage of seeing how many people are offered care and compassion.
“One of the most important things we must have at Houston Recovery Center is integrity, and our finances become a very visible part of that effort,” states Mills. “I have seen wise and effective usage of our funds to help the people we serve.”
Mills says Houston Recovery Center is offering to help citizens reclaim their futures. He says most of the time, our city recognizes that being arrested for substance use issues is not treatment, and it will not help the person.
Community awareness
Although Houston Recovery Center has been around more than six years, it’s not a mainstream nonprofit known by many people. Mills said he would like for the community to know and understand how caring for those with addiction can be a fiscally responsible effort.
“When in recovery, the person can experience healing, and families can be re-built,” Mills says. “And as they get jobs, they begin to gain the self-respect they surrendered long ago.”
Mills says Houston Recovery Center is making a difference by helping people return to the community as a contributing member.
At the moment
Mills retired from Star of Hope in 2013 as executive vice president/CFO. Currently, he volunteers with Mosaics of Mercy helping the executive director create a clearinghouse for those with mental health issues in Montgomery County. One of the unique aspects of the nonprofit is its two-hour workshops creating mosaics and learning about making “beauty out of brokenness.”