Austin Wynn is a 5-time founder, entrepreneur, visionary, and pioneer in the business world. He is also a recovering drug addict. At age 11, Austin initiated a movement to relocate his 5th-grade class's outdoor recess indoors on a brutally cold winter day in Indiana. Austin's teachers, peers, even the principal all took notice, and yes, they won that campaign. Just five years later, Austin found himself at the crossroads of grief and suffering after the loss of a close friend to suicide, followed by a painful recovery from a complicated surgery. The combination of physical and emotional trauma at a vulnerable time in his life led to misusing prescription opiates to soothe his pain and, eventually, a heroin addiction.
Austin's struggle with addiction continued for ten years, with several rehab attempts followed by several relapses, leading him down a road of hopelessness and despair. It was on November 2, 2016, when everything changed. Austin had just finished another 12-step meeting. Sitting on the steps of a local church, Austin came up with the idea to create a powerful, full-service organization that would integrate a holistic approach to treatment. This concept would bring doctors, therapists, administrators, and patients' families together to be involved in finding quality treatment, placement programs, insurance coverage, and assistance to achieve sustainable recovery. With the support of one person, his best friend Nathaniel, also in recovery, Austin started Never Alone Recovery a month later in the basement of his late grandmother's home. With no heat, no computers, just a few notebooks, and a mission statement, Never Alone Recovery landed their first client four short months later.
Fast forward to today, Never Alone Recovery has helped over 1,000 families, completed hundreds of interventions, is an active partner in the addiction recovery community, and employs individuals who have been affected by addiction, be it themselves or a loved one. Never Alone Recovery offers free resources and hosts a weekly online support meeting with the Keys to Freedom Foundation, available to anyone. In 2023, Never Alone Recovery won The Daily Times of Northwest Indiana Best of the Region in Healthcare for Best Mental Health Counseling. Through struggles that fueled perseverance, Austin's nature has always been to advocate for others, look for ways to 'do better,' reshape norms, and always give people a chance.
