David Lewis, nationally recognized educator and leader in the field of substance abuse recovery and prisoner rehabilitation, died on June 9, 2010 in San Mateo, California. He was 54 years-old. David Lewis was born in San Francisco, California on November 23, 1955. The cause of his death was a single gunshot wound, a death incongruous with the tremendous career he had in creating peace and alternatives for people in his community.
Mr. Lewis was co-founder and Board Chair of Free at Last, a model program for community-based substance abuse intervention, AIDS prevention and prisoner rehabilitation. The model was developed to create healing from within the African American community has been replicated throughout the US via the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment and the State Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs.
Mr. Lewis was a Certified Master Facilitator and Program Planner for Gordon Graham and Company and, along with Graham, designed Gordon's cognitive programs which are used throughout the country in corrections and in corporate America. His most recent work was done in the New York and Michigan correctional systems. His skills helped shape education and correctional organizations in the federal bureau of prisons, state prisons and local jails.
His experiences with Circle of Recovery led him to rethink the existing paradigm around addiction recovery that removed people from the community in order to help them. David led the movement to create treatment "in the community, by the community and for the community."
Understanding first-hand that the power that the people in a community can have on its members, Mr. Lewis decided to build a new model of community-based support. He turned to the streets of East Palo Alto - notorious at that time as the "Murder Capital of the United States" - with a new mission: helping others that he recognized were heading down his former path.
Intent on attacking the crime epidemic at its source by building on his credibility as a community member, former addict and long-time inmate, Mr. Lewis co-founded Free At Last. During its first year of operation, the organization helped to reduce violence in the East Palo Alto region by 87%. Today Free at Last helps some 4,200 people annually and Mr. Lewis has helped replicate the model as far away as Africa. David's reputation on the streets is one of a man who never gives up on others, visiting those in difficulty in prisons, in crack-houses, and in hospitals, he always had an open hand looking for a way to help.
Relentlessly driven, Mr. Lewis realized that tied to the issues of substance abuse was the growing epidemic of AIDS among African Americans; he became a Certified HIV AIDS pre and post-test counselor, serving as a Community Program Specialist for the San Mateo County AIDS Program. He had also served on the first HIV prevention planning committee for the State of California.
In 1994, Mr. Lewis was awarded the California Wellness Foundation's Peace Prize and East Palo Alto's Positive Image Award. In addition, he was awarded an Echoing Green Fellowship in 1994. His journey led him to meet with people as diverse as President Bill Clinton and Mayor Willie Brown -- both were inspired by him, and he by them.