‘Jake of All Trades’
Emerge’s own Jake Shelley man named ‘Person of the Year’ by local MHRB
XENIA — Rock bottom looks different for everyone.
For Jake Shelley, it was a traumatic near-death experience several years ago that finally forced him to look at his life and make that slow, inevitable turn back towards the light.
“A group of guys nearly murdered me,” Shelley said recently during an interview with the local news. “They kidnapped me, dowsed me in bleach and left me all alone to die. They didn’t want anyone finding the body. And I remember praying at that time: God help me!”
Before this incident, Shelley said, he had overdosed 40 times and had countless other close calls with death.
“I didn’t want to be here,” he said. “I didn’t want to be alive. And I just remember praying to God and crying out to him for help because I also didn’t want to die. It was in that moment that I remember God telling me that I was going to die if I didn’t start to listen to him and follow him.”
Miraculously, Shelley explained, God made a way for him to survive that near-death experience that served as the “dark night of the soul” necessary to make some serious changes.
“He got me out of that whole situation,” Shelley said. “It was a miracle, but Jesus got me to where I am today. I finally surrendered. I surrounded myself with good people. That’s when things started to turn around.”
Having grown up in foster care, Shelley, who recently turned 40, said turning over a new leaf started when he met Kyle Shaw of Whole Truth Ministries in Dayton. Shaw, in turn, connected him with Five Star Home Services Co-Founder Kip Morris.
At that time, Morris was running a Bible study in Xenia and was in the early planning stages of purchasing the former Greene County Career Center Campus. He and Emerge co-founders Doug VanDyke of Van Martin Roofing and Chris Adams of Narrow Path Plumbing were in the discussion phases.
This was in 2021, before everything got started.
And while Emerge Recovery & Trade Initiative was still just a dream for these three local business leaders who are in long-term recovery themselves, they knew they could use a guy like Jake. Moreover, they also knew that Jake, in turn, could use their mentorship — as three loving men of God, who could put him to work and show him a new way of life.
It turns out, they were right.
Teamwork Makes the Dream Work: Starting Emerge from the Ground Up. . .
Over the years, Jake Shelley has had a tremendous impact on every area of the campus at the Emerge Center — starting with the first renovations of the building and eventually evolving into the mentorship of the first groups of men coming through their doors. Almost everyone on campus has come to love and respect Jake.
Because many of the residents coming to the Emerge Recovery & Trade Initiative have experienced the most severe hardships in life, he has been an asset to the team. Jake has become a leader, a person who knows what these men are going through and where they’ve been in life and what it takes to recovery.
This sort of leadership makes all the difference. And because of this, Jake has been a staple in this community since day one. Over time, he has worked his way all the way up to peer support and eventually counseling. Along the way, in fact, he says the community has become his family — literally. In 2023, Jake married Melissa Adams, who is the sister of Emerge Co-founder Chris Adams. Also known as “Missy,” Melissa Adams Shelley is the cofounder of the Hope Hub.
In any case, as the recovery housing manager at Emerge Springs today, Jake oversees a large portion of the treatment center’s operation. In addition to his promotion, Jake recently got some good news from the local MHRB.
Jake Shelley Named Person of the Year
Recently, Jake was honored for his work in the community, especially his work in recent years helping men overcome drug and alcohol addiction. Having impacted the lives of hundreds of men over the past five years, Shelley was selected as this year’s Patrick Williams Person of the Year Award for outstanding contributions toward treatment, prevention, and recovery.
On February 5th, Shelley will be formally honored at the Mental Health Recovery Board of Clark, Greene, and Madison Counties’ Exceptional People Awards Ceremony in Springfield.
As part of his nomination, community leaders said Jake Shelley is the model of what true-long-term recovery looks like.
“Jake has not allowed the traumatic events of his life to define him,” said Elaine Bonner, director of philanthropy at Emerge. “Instead, he has used his experiences to be an advocate and support person for hundreds of others. He exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, service to others, humility, deep empathy, faith, devotion, and a positive outlook in all circumstances.”
When Emerge was still in its infancy in 2021, Jake’s story of overcoming major obstacles drew him to the mission here.
“From being placed in a children’s home at an early age, to living on the streets for decades and spending time incarcerated, Jake’s lived experiences make him a perfect candidate to mentor and lead men with substance use disorders and co-occurring disorders,” Bonner added. “Jake was integral to the progress made at the Emerge campus when the building was purchased at auction in 2021. He was one of the first employees hired to get the building in order so businesses could move in. We referred to him as ‘Jake of all Trades.’ Every area of this 240,000 square foot space that was improved was because Jake was involved.”
Early on, Jake first served as the building operations coordinator. He added sweat equity by clearing weeds that were six feet tall, hauling debris, moving furniture, painting walls, laying flooring, picking up donated items (including 50 dorm sets from Cedarville University), and building a house on site that serves as a diagnostic plumbing lab.
“As we began to share the Emerge vision in 2022, Jake accompanied me on speaking engagements at churches and service organizations to create awareness and financial investments,” Bonner said. “He began sharing his testimony at fundraising events and was a part of several impact videos to build our base of supporters.”
Jake’s passion to serve Emerge moved beyond his trades skills as he started an educational path earning his peer support certification. Later, he also became a counselor earning his CDCA I and CDCA II, which enabled him to walk the journey of recovery alongside men as a case manager. Eventually, he took on the role of lead monitor/case manager in 2023. Today he is the recovery housing manager over Emerge Springs, our 38-bed recovery housing program in Yellow Springs.
Emerge CEO Rachel Huffman also discussed how Jake has made a tremendously positive impact at Emerge over the years.
She said Jake’s work ethic, passion, and team approach led to his promotion in 2024 as Recovery Housing Manager and part of the Emerge Leadership Team.
“Jake is the true definition of humble, hungry, and smart — the ideal team player,” Huffman said. “He takes time to train his team well and build out a culture of support and accountability for the residents and clients of Emerge. He pushes people to go above and beyond what is right, and to further their professional and personal growth. Jake serves all people he interacts with at the highest level.”
Beyond his role and time investment at Emerge which includes homeless outreach programs, Narcan distribution, weekend recovery events, and a new prison program that records inmate voices for their children through a nonprofit, StoryChain, Jake continues to give his time to causes that resonate.
He is the project lead for Champions of Change, a nonprofit in Xenia that exists to help men become their very best selves through fellowship, discipleship, and service. He is also involved in projects in the community that serve the elderly, at-risk Veterans, those with disabilities, and single-parent households. He is also a regular volunteer at the Church of the Nazarene soup kitchen and a family mentor at Hope Hub Xenia, the women’s nonprofit recovery housing program founded by his wife, Melissa “Missy” Adams Shelley.
“Our team at Emerge realizes that Jake would not want this recognition,” Bonner said. “His work is based on a calling to serve. From being on call after hours when one of our residents has an issue to helping his neighbor with home repairs and moving heavy boxes, Jake is a constant source of support and gratitude. We nominated him because his life is one of a complete transformation from substance use, incarceration, and hopelessness. He is a community champion that is now having a profound impact on hundreds of lives to give others meaning and purpose.”
Now for a little more on Jake’s Story . . .
Recently, we sat down with Jake for an interview with Scott Halasz, editor of the Xenia Gazette:
Tell us about yourself, and your story. What happened?
“My parents got divorced when I was 5. There was a pretty big custody battle. I ended up moving in with my dad and stepmother when I was eight. My stepmom never really wanted me there. It was a very toxic environment. I couldn’t do anything right. She would punish me for no reason and even make up lies about me. Because of this, when I was about 11 or 12 after growing up in an environment like that, I started to believe that I was a bad kid. Because I believed I was a bad kid, I wanted to show them how bad I could. So, I just stepped into that and that’s how it got started. I ended up on probation in three different counties in two different states. By the time I was 11, my stepmom lied to my probation officers, and I got sent away to juvenile detention. Eventually, they put me in the children’s home. My dad showed up there eventually and told me that he didn’t want anything to do with me, so I stayed in a children’s home until the age of 14, when my mom got me out of there and moved me to Hamilton, Ohio. By then, I had my GED and didn’t have to go to school. As you can imagine, a 14-year-old kid not having to go to school anymore, it wasn’t good. I drifted into hanging out with the wrong crowd. I got into drugs and selling drugs, and partying, and drinking. Eventually, I joined gangs and everything else that goes on from there.”
What did active addiction look like? What did it entail?
“I went full-fledged into drugs when I was 14. I was so hurt and so angry about things that happened in my childhood that I didn’t know what to do with it. Drugs helped me cope with what I was feeling. That’s how I kind of started out and then it became pretty much survival. Eventually, everything revolved around drugs. My friends, my income, everything I did was tied to drugs.”
“I started getting in trouble. I was in and out of jails and prisons.”
“It kept progressing. At one point, I overdosed more than 40 times. They kept bringing me back and I even remember getting angry with the nurses once in the emergency room because they revived me, and I wanted to die.”
“I had people trying to kill me, people giving me hot shots.”
“Eventually, I hit rock-bottom. God gave me a stern intervention. I was hanging out with some people end up getting jumped by them. There were about four of them and it went on for a while. I kept getting beat every 15 minutes for about two hours. Eventually, they left me on the shower floor to die; they doused me with bleach; they wanted to make sure no one ever found me. “
“I remember praying that day and I remember God clearly telling me like ‘you are going to die this time unless you start to follow me.”
“I made a promise then to follow him and I’ve been doing so ever since because he made a way for me to get out of that situation and I’ve been going strong ever since.”
What made you decide to turn things around? What was the journey back into the “light” like for you?
“After that situation, I told myself I don’t have control,” he said. “I knew I needed help. That broke me to a point of surrender. For a while, however, I was still on a path where I wasn’t fully surrendered. So, I would say the sanctification is a process. I learned to listen to the Holy Spirit more and more. I try to get better each day than I was yesterday. The biggest thing that happened throughout all this, a miracle on its own, was how God changed my heart . . .
“God healed my heart,” he said. “He changed me. I used to be mad at God and he took all that pain and all that anger that I had bottled up deep inside me and he healed me. I never knew what that could feel like. I never imagined this was possible.”
What is your sobriety date? What has your journey in recovery been like?
“My sobriety date is the day after Thanksgiving, in November of 2019,” he said. “It’s been a long journey since that day – in and out of programs and sober livings. At first, I was a part of the Good Shepherd program. It didn’t work out there but that led me to Whole Truth Ministries where I met Don Whitmer. Don took me to a Bible study. That’s how I met Kip Morris. At that time, Kip explained how they were planning on buying the building. They wanted to serve men and women in addiction and have an emancipation program. Because of my history in foster care and my past in addiction, I fell in love with the idea instantly. Before they bought the building, one day Kip asked me to go to Lowe’s and help another ministry rip out a bunch of cabinets. That’s how I ended up meeting my wife Melissa Adams in 2021. That’s when this place really started becoming a home for me. That’s when it truly became my family.
What was Emerge like in the first days?
“The first time I stepped foot in this building – it was hard to see the vision,” Jake said. “It was a ghost town. Everything was gutted. It was like an abandoned building. No one was around. Eventually, I started watching as the companies started coming in. At one point, I lived here a while too. I supervised a lot of the work in the building and did a lot of the work you see. Then the companies started coming in. Renovations started happening. We started working on the men’s section, the residential, which was completed in 2023. Up until now, it’s been crazy having clients here and actually changing lives.”
What’s the best thing an addict can do for their recovery?
“When you’ve had to survive your whole life, as people in addiction often do, surrender is the last word in your vocabulary,” Shelley said. “However, that’s the most important aspect. If God hadn’t healed my heart and healed my anger – and all the rejection and trauma – I wouldn’t have made it this far.”
At what point in your recovery journey did you decide to become a CDCA counselor?
“The last time I left treatment, I was on a kind of personal journey. I figured out what I actually wanted to do. I remember I had a counselor tell me that I would make a good counselor. So that’s kind of what inspired me. It was a goal of mine when I left treatment last time. I went to Sinclair and got my CDCA I and my CDCA II.”
What are some of the keys to success for people to maintain their sobriety?
“In addition to surrendering to God, it’s very important the type of people we surround ourselves with. You need to work a recovery program. You need to build a sober support network. Here at Emerge, we equip our clients with the latest, most holistic solutions. In fact, with the vocational component, we are doing things no other treatment center is doing.”
“It’s an honor to be a part of this, and an honor to be recognized as ‘Person of the Year’ by the MHRB.”
“But make no mistake about it: All the Glory Goes to God!”
For more information, to donate or get involved contact Elaine Bonner, Director of Philanthropy at Emerge at 937.974.6120 or visit https://www.
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