Our History

More than a quarter of a century ago, a Portsmouth businessman and a Franciscan friar discovered a problem on the seacoast and set out to find a solution. Arthur Brady, a well known Port City automobile dealer, and Joseph Riley, who is no longer a friar but is now a colonel in the New Hampshire national Guard, decided something had to be done about the growing number of drug and alcohol abusers in the region.  To help find a solution, Riley, while still a friar, in an effort to learn first-hand how addicts lived and what was most effective in helping address their problems, spent time in New York City posing as one.  The efforts of both men led to the establishment of a seacoast branch of Odyssey House, a New York City-based therapeutic community which had shown progress in helping addicts kick their habits. 

1970 — Concerned individuals on the New Hampshire Seacoast raise funds to purchase the Whittier Inn in Hampton, Odyssey House is established.

1971 — The treatment center at 30 Winnacunnet Road, in Hampton is opened.

1972 — Odyssey House receives National Institute of Mental Health grant.

1973 — Odyssey School receives title IV grant from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare to become a model development program for adolescents with severe emotional handicaps.

1974 — After four successful years of treating adult offenders, and at the request of New Hampshire juvenile courts, Odyssey House opens an innovative comprehensive treatment program for adolescents, age 13 to 18.

1975 — Odyssey House opens the Dover, New Hampshire facility, a farm on five acres of heartland with animals and gardens, for Odyssey House graduates who have completed the program but have no place to go.

• Odyssey House opened its first special education program in Dover for its residents and day students.

1976 — The student intern program at the University of New Hampshire begins to provide field training in human service careers for college students majoring in psychology and sociology.

1977 — Adventure experiences are added to Odyssey House which take place at Sargeant Camp in Peterborough, New Hampshire, an extension of the Boston University Environmental Education Center.

• Odyssey House leads the campaign against the production and sale of child pornography in New Hampshire which results in the passage of SB141 making the production, sale, or possession of pornographic material that includes minor children a felony with severe penalties.

1978 — Hampton Co-op opens, partially subsidized by Odyssey House, to be maintained by Odyssey House graduates who cannot or choose not to return home.

1979 — Odyssey House adolescents elected to New Hampshire's Juvenile Justice Advisory Board.

1981 — Odyssey House negotiates to develop a comparable program for adolescents in Maine.

1982 — Crime Commission awards grant to Odyssey House for pilot project for the assessment of serious and violent offenders.

1983 — Odyssey House's educational component becomes certified as a special education school.

• Boston University School of Law releases nationally acclaimed research on child abuse and delinquency relationship based on Odyssey House's work from 1974-1982.

1984 — Office of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention awards grant for development of the Aftercare program.

• New Hampshire Charitable Trust grants funds for computerization of patient records which will allow more direct client care and data analysis.

1985 — Division for Children and Youth Services awards Odyssey House a contract to operate a 5 bed 30 day detention/assessment program for children awaiting the disposition of the court. Project P.A.C.E. (Placement Awaiting Court Evaluation) is opened in Dover.

• Odyssey House, Inc. is formed as a new organization to provide services.  The previous organization becomes the Odyssey Foundation which holds all the assets, but does not provide services.  (See Foundation History)

1991 — First Arthur F. Brady Lecture in conjunction with UNH School for Health and Human Services.

1994 — Odyssey Family Center (OFC) opens in Canterbury offering residential and rehabilitation services to pregnant, substance abusing women and mothers with young children.  This was done in partnership with a grant from SAMHSA and matching funds from the states of New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont.

• Development Department added to Odyssey House.
  

1996 — Youth Build Program developed in Manchester, NH.

2004 — The Maine PACE program in Sanford closes.

2005 — Organization changes its name to OdysseyNH (from Odyssey House, Inc.).

• Feasibility Study funded by the NH Endowment for Health to study Recovery School
  

2007 — OdysseyNH Academy opens on August 27^th at 150 High Street in Hampton.

• Campaign for Recovery begins to fund the completion of the OdysseyNH Academy as well as significantly enhance existing programs.
  

Over time programs have been started and stopped, grants sought and awarded and improvements made.  All the while, OdysseyNH staff have received recognition and praise for their work on behalf of the youth "of promise" from New Hampshire.  Below are some of the themes, which continue to carry forth throughout the years:

• Community involvement through service projects
• Substance abuse treatment, rehabilitation and prevention
• Adventure based programming
• Corporate and community partnerships with the private and non-profit communities
• Need to expand, grow and diversify funding base
• Budgetary challenges
• Political involvement
• Creative solutions to difficult problems