About us

We're outsiders, harnessing the power of the peer, technology and data science to keep people well from addiction.

Solving our nation's greatest health challenge


Face It TOGETHER is a disruptive social enterprise committed to solving our nation’s – and every community’s – greatest health challenge: the chronic disease of drug and alcohol addiction.

About 20 million Americans suffer from addiction. Almost 90% of them are missed every year by today’s system. The human and financial consequences are enormous, affecting every sector of society.

Moreover, drug and alcohol addiction is at the root of a wide range of challenging social problems and is inextricably linked to our quality of life, the strength of our economy and the safety of our communities. 

Watch Video

Why is it so hard to get well from this disease?

Kevin Kirby's search for answers to that question led to the genesis of Face It TOGETHER. We're a team of social entrepreneurs bringing a meaningful, innovative and sustainable solution to our nation's top public health crisis. Our work marries social mission with business innovation to fundamentally transform the way communities deal with this costly and devastating illness.

The broken system

Today’s system of addiction care suffers from three fundamental challenges: 

  • Short-term care. The system delivers care in short-term bursts, typically 28-30 days, even though addiction is a long-term, chronic illness. 
     
  • Few outcomes. The system has one data point for addiction recovery: sobriety. You can't boil down a happy and healthy life to a single data point. 
     
  • Private-sector needs. The private sector, largely employers, bears the brunt of the enormous costs associated with untreated addiction. But today’s portfolio of tools for employers doesn’t work. 

 

Our solution

At Face It TOGETHER, we’re laser-focused on these three challenges: 

  1. Chronic care. We deliver care that is not time-constrained for this chronic disease. We do so via peer addiction management coaches in view of mountains of evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of coaches in helping people manage chronic disease. 
     
  2. Outcomes that matter. Utilizing our proprietary and scientifically validated recovery assessment tool, we deliver outcomes that matter to our members, improving quality of life as measured against 26 areas of mental, emotional and physical wellness. 
     
  3. Employer tools. We offer employers tools that deliver value in the form a healthier workforce, with far more employees seeking and receiving the highest quality of care. Our ability to deliver demonstrable value to the private sector permits us to be sustainable and, as a result, strategic in our approach.

 

Mission

Our mission is to get people with addiction and their loved ones well.

Vision

Our vision is a nation that has solved the disease of drug and alcohol addiction.

Community transformation

We believe communities can solve addiction, but not with conventional approaches. Communities can solve addiction with extraordinary leadership and commitment, along with powerful and innovative new tools.

Solving addiction in any community is about dramatically more people seeking help, getting well and staying well. It’s about increasing the quantity of people seeking help and increasing the quality of addiction care.

Read more

Watch Video

Bush Prize for Community Innovation

The Bush Foundation recognized Face It TOGETHER for extraordinary community problem-solving in our work around addiction, which began in Sioux Falls, S.D., in 2009 and has now expanded to Colorado, Minnesota and North Dakota and members in more than 16 states.

Get to know our team

Photo of Wendy White, Chief Operating Officer

Wendy White

Chief Operating Officer

As Chief Operating Officer, Wendy ensures organizational stability and governance. She will take over as Chief Executive Officer starting January 1, 2020.

Wendy White
Photo of David Whitesock, Face It TOGETHER's Chief Innovation Officer

David Whitesock

Chief Innovation Officer

David leads our tech, data and related innovation strategies, designed to transform peer addiction management coaching, capture meaningful data and prove the impact of our work.

David Whitesock
Photo of Kristen Goettsch, Face It TOGETHER's Senior Evaluation Scientist

Kristen Goettsch

Senior Evaluation Scientist

Kristen directs our robust evaluation program, leading its design, overseeing data collection and managing research analysis. She also leads our development and academic training initiatives.

Kristen Goettsch
Photo of Jen Horning, Director of Coaching

Jennifer Horning

Director of Coaching

An experienced leader in the addiction treatment field, Jennifer manages our peer coaches.

Jennifer Horning
Meet more changemakers