Photo by Jon Anderson
Brian Stockard, executive director of The Turning Point Foundation, speaks to the Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce at the chamber's monthly luncheon at Vestavia Country Club on Tuesday, April 8, 2025.
Brian Stockard grew up in Vestavia Hills in a relatively normal way.
He played football, made good grades, graduated from Vestavia Hills High School in 1991 and went on to get a degree in accounting from Auburn University.
But in the early 2000s, when Oxycontin was everywhere and extremely available, his struggle with a drug addiction began, and before he knew it, his life had become a "living Hell," he said.
“I couldn’t even begin to describe to you how hopeless and helpless you feel,” Stockard told the Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce at the chamber’s monthly luncheon at the Vestavia Country Club on Thursday.
He had been a member of Church of the Highlands since 2001 and was in church on 95% of Sundays, he said. But his life was falling apart.
“You can’t imagine what it’s like for 12 years when you’re battling addiction — sitting in church every Sunday wondering why you can’t be like everybody else. What’s wrong with me?” he said. “It was very difficult. I couldn’t understand why God wouldn’t just heal me. I couldn’t understand why miracles happen for others and it wasn’t happening for me. I wanted for somebody to just lay hands on me and it just be gone.”
But God had other plans for him, he said.
In 2013, he hit rock bottom and in a humble and broken state agreed to go into treatment.
“I was willing to do anything anybody told me to do,” he said.
He went into a 12-step program and with God’s help and the assistance of others was able to overcome his addiction, he said. He has now been sober for more than 11 years, he said.
But more than that, he realized that God had taken the mess of his life and turned it into a message, he said. Since he became sober, it has become his mission to help other people battling addiction and disciple them into a deeper and life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ, he said.
Stockard got involved with 12-step programs, which led him to join the board of The Turning Point Foundation, which runs a 90-day Christ-centered residential recovery center in the Thorsby area of Chilton County for men battling substance abuse.
Stockard initially joined the Turning Point team in June 2018 as a member of the foundation’s board of directors and in June of 2019 moved into the position of executive director.
He had zero experience with nonprofits, but he had a passion that drove him to get more involved.
“I’m not going to sit on my hands when there are people out there dying,” Stockard said. “I can’t sit here and not do anything. I have to try to help the next guy.”
After Stockard became sober, the fentanyl crisis started, and it’s not getting any better now, he told the Vestavia Hills chamber. The kids today dealing with drugs are getting younger and younger, and the COVID-19 pandemic and social media have made them very isolated, he said.
When he first got involved with The Turning Point Foundation, they might have one or two guys under 25, but now they have seven or eight, and there would be more if they had enough space for them, he said.
The Turning Point Foundation has a dorm that holds 28 people and a house for seven more.
They run a Christ-centered program that shows people who are struggling a lot of mercy and grace and helps them become the men that God created them to be — better husbands and fathers and productive members of society, he said.
Stockard introduced the crowd at the chamber luncheon to Jacob Reeves, a graduate of The Turning Point Foundation who now works at the Vestavia Country Club.
Reeves said he is a recovering drug addict who has battled addiction since he was 13. He has overdosed about 60 times, been in and out of jail and prison and been to treatment 25 times, he said.
When he first went through The Turning Point program, he stayed sober for a year but then relapsed, he said. The assistant director arranged for him to get a scholarship to come back, and it changed his life, he said.
“I never in my life thought I would say rehab was one of the best experiences in my life, but in all honesty, I can say being at Turning Point for those 90 days was one of the best experiences of my life,” Reeve said.
He now has been sober almost two years, and “I never thought that was possible for me,” he said.
What made it possible was not just the 12-step program, but also God and the caring and loving people who have experience with drug addiction and who picked him up when he was down, he said.
“They don’t just tell you how to live it. They show you how to live it,” he said.
Stockard said The Turning Point Foundation is eager to expand its ministry. Phase one of the plan is to add classroom space, and phase two is to double the capacity of the dorm space from 28 to 56 people.
“We want to be a light for people that are in the worst place they can possibly be in their lives,” he said. “I’m very hopeful, and I’m very grateful. I’m excited about what the future holds for Turning Point.”
People who want to help can offer scholarship money to help people afford treatment or join The Watchmen prayer team that prays for specific needs of clients who remain anonymous.
For more information, go to turningpointal.org or call 205-955-2890.
