MACON, Ga. (WGXA) — A Macon-based recovery and re-entry program is taking an unusual approach to raise money and draw attention to addiction and neighborhood needs in south Macon: its executive director says he plans to live on a roof.
Todd Robinson, executive director of Next Step Recovery, said the organization runs a minimum 12-month program focused on addiction recovery for men, often mandated to attend after leaving jail or prison.
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Todd Robinson, executive director of Next Step Recovery Ministries speaks to WGXA on September 10, 2026, about his plans to live on the roof of the recovery’s warehouse in order to raise money for the residential recovery and discipleship centered on men (Gloria Ruth Finney, WGXA)
“Next Step is a 12-month minimum program,” Robinson said. “A lot of them are coming out of jail. Some guys come out of prison, and they need a place to go for a while, and we offer that transition for them.”
Robinson said the program includes mentorship, job training and life skills and serves a wide age range. “Some of our guys are 18. Some of our guys are 60,” he said. He added that participants have come from across the Southeast, including Tennessee, Florida, South Carolina and Virginia, and said the program has also served a participant from Colorado.
Robinson said the organization has been doing ministry work for more than 20 years and purchased an old nursing home in the area about eight years ago. Since then, he said, the mission has expanded beyond the men in the program to the surrounding neighborhood.
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Next Step Recovery Ministries, located on Houston Avenue in Macon, provides Christ-centered residential recovery and discipleship for men as well as group meetings and individual counseling. (Gloria Ruth Finney, WGXA)
“The gas station that’s behind us. You can’t see last year that was a drug-infested, selling drugs, doing drugs at the same time kids were at the bus stop there,” Robinson said. “We realized that we have a much greater mission than just the men; we have a mission down here for this neighborhood.”
When asked about addiction in the criminal justice system, Robinson said he does not have an exact number for the broader community, but sees addiction as a common underlying issue among people who are incarcerated.
“I can tell you that the population that we deal with, the jail population, almost all of the issues that men or women are in jail, they might be there for armed robbery, or they might be there for stealing or something. But the core root of why they’re there is usually addiction,” he said. “So, it’s almost 100% in the system there.”
Robinson said measuring long-term success can be difficult, but he pointed to early retention and post-graduation outcomes as indicators.
“What I like to say is if a guy here, if he’ll make it through the first 30 days of the program, 90% of the time he’s going to stick around and graduate,” Robinson said. He later added, “I would say that 50% of our guys that, once they graduate, are still doing good. They’re staying out of jail. They’re staying clean. They’re serving in their community. They have a job.”
Robinson said his commitment to the work grew out of personal experience. “I had a sister who was caught up in addiction,” he said, describing how his family helped her enter a program about 20 years ago. “Through that whole process, the calling just came on my life.”
To support the organization’s work, Robinson said he is launching a fundraiser called “Raise the Roof,” with a goal of $1 million. He said he plans to climb onto a roof on Houston Avenue on Monday, the 28th of September, and live there for a period of time to draw attention to the need in the area.
“I’ve had so many people ask me, are you really going to live on that roof? And I said, yes. I’m really going to live on the roof on Houston Avenue,” Robinson said.
He said he will have a small shelter and a cooler for food and will come down to use a porta potty. “That porta potty is just not going to go up on that roof. That’s just reality,” he said.
Robinson said donations can be made through the event website. “It’s called www.raisederoof.live. And there is a donate button on there,” he said.
Robinson also described some of the program’s day-to-day operations. He said Thursdays often include selling firewood and boiled peanuts to support the program, along with job work that brings in income. He said participants go into class at 1 p.m., and Thursdays include mentorship from men in the community and a finance class on Thursday night.
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