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The current environment

Little is being done to help people prevent their problems before their lives come apart. The world is full of hurting people seeking to break the “CHAINS” (compulsive habits, addictions, idols, negative self-talk) holding them prisoner.

  • Less than 10% of people with addiction or emotional issues get help. Programs are desperately needed to provide encouragement, knowledge, and safety for people to take positive steps forward before their lives are torn apart.
  • There are thousands of treatment and recovery organizations but little education or services focused on prevention.
  • People are busy, frustrated, or unable to find good information in a clutter of conflicting, silo-based internet material.
  • People around those struggling may not think addiction can happen to them and remain unaware of how bad the problem has become. They don’t know what to do to help the person and, too often, they wait too long to get help. 
  • Every organization has people struggling with behavioral health issues but few have prevention programs.

Why STEPS Ministries Exists

Our Vision is for all hurting people to find help, healing, and hope.

Our Goals are to help people improve their lives, grow closer to God, and prevent addictions and other harmful issues.

Our Strategy is to help people live life better by being proactive and intentional, developing resilience and peace, and taking steps to achieve wholeness (emotionally, mentally, socially, spiritually, and personally).

What We Will Do

Our Mission is to serve people effectively and efficiently by creating practical resources and education, communicating and sharing content in a repeatable and scalable manner, and reaching more people by collaborating with other organizations.

We will achieve our Mission by providing:

HELP through proven, practical content and training to help people become proactive in taking daily steps to live life better.

  • Intentional – Progress is possible by making positive choices and taking next right steps one step and one day at a time.
  • Instructional – Providing practical how-to content and easy-to-understand next right steps people can learn and take.

HEALING that is grace-oriented and effective to help people develop resilience and learn to deal with life’s challenges well.  

  • Inclusive – Healing is for everyone regardless of their past mistakes, because we’ve all been there too.
  • Integrated – Wholeness is found by aligning our heart, soul, mind, and strength with God’s will and values. This often takes a holistic approach, so we integrate principles from recovery, the Bible, wellness, personal development, and science.

HOPE that is life-transforming because it offers a realistic assurance of a positive future by helping people achieve wholeness with emotional well-being, spiritual wisdom, and personal excellence.

  • Improvement-focused – Providing hope for life enhancement, spiritual growth, and addiction prevention with useful solutions that utilize principles and steps proven to work for millions of people over many years of experience.
  • Inspirational – This hope we share is encouraging, optimistic, and empowering as we thankfully pass on the grace and assurance our all-powerful God has given us to other hurting people.

How We Will Do It

We take a grace-driven approach of vulnerability and acceptance versus shame and judgment to help people take steps to:

  • Awareness – Understanding that we all have issues, but there is always hope.
  • Connection – Willingness to engage with others and be open and vulnerable with them.
  • Education – Becoming intentional and acquiring knowledge of how to handle adversity.

Our education is built on proven principles for effective living that help prevent addictions and provide many other benefits:

  • Greater peace and happiness with less worry.
  • Better relationships and less guilt from past mistakes.
  • Living more effectively with a focus on what’s important.
  • Becoming more productive and feeling good about our daily progress.
  • Developing a more positive outlook and a stronger sense of purpose.
  • An enhanced understanding of God’s direction for our life.

What Makes Us Different

We focus on PREVENTION of behavioral health issues.

Prevention helps people live in a purposeful manner, increase their resilience, and follow a holistic lifestyle. It deals with factors that lead someone toward addiction in a healthy manner before they reach the crisis stage.

  • We apply principles from the world of recovery, but we will package and deliver them earlier in the addiction cycle and in a manner most suitable for prevention.
  • Many organizations focus on recovery, but few are dedicated to proactive, integrated focus on prevention.
  • We want every person to know how to detect the early stages of addiction, understand how to prevent it, and be connected to people who can help them.
  • Other things that make us unique are that we:
    • Present a lifestyle integrated spiritually, emotionally, and personally to help people live life better.
    • Utilize proven principles which have worked for millions of people all over the world.
    • Deliver practical how-to guidance for daily living rather than only theory or psychology.
    • Present usable education and content in a way that is interesting and easy-to-understand.
    • Use a vulnerable and transparent approach that is grace-driven rather than shame-driven.

How We Can Be Successful

  • We utilize evidence-based and evidence-informed recovery principles that have worked for millions.
  • We have research-based methodologies to address behavioral root causes of issues for life transformation.
  • Our training programs have received extremely positive feedback from those we have educated.
  • Our programs use input from Organizational Wellness & Learning Systems, recognized by the US Surgeon General for evidence-based prevention programs.
  • We have large amounts of proven STEPS content from our books, blogs, and training we can repurpose.
  • We have processes and content to scale what we do.
  • We continually surrender this ministry to God.
  • Our Executive Director, Steve Ward, has broad training and experience that support execution of our mission:
    • He and his family have “been there” and dealt with substance abuse, depression, and harmful issues.
    • Degree in Industrial Engineering from Georgia Tech and 38 years of business experience with IBM.
    • 20+ years of experience supporting nonprofits in planning, program management, and marketing.
    • Leadership, consulting, and planning experience with nonprofit and for-profit organizations.
    • Published author of books and over 300 articles and highly-rated speaker, teacher, coach, and facilitator.