“He was held accountable for his actions. “Timmy brings a level of strict accountability to guys staying in his houses, but he does it with compassion,” says Reid. Brooks’ unwavering commitment convinced Reid and his partners to get involved with Synergy. Garth Reid is the co-founder and chief growth officer for Ethos Treatment, which provides intensive outpatient care to Synergy and other recovery programs from its offices in West Chester, Plymouth Meeting and Philadelphia. “Our guys earn progression as a result of positive actions in their life.” “You don’t get anything for free,” says Brooks. By the summer of 2019, he was Synergy’s executive director and owner, overseeing 42 beds in three houses-two in West Chester and one in Pottstown.Ī 12-step program is the backbone of Synergy, and daily accountability is also strictly enforced. With the backing of several partners also in recovery, Brooks founded Synergy Houses, two sober living homes for men. He honed in on what many see as a broken part of the system: transitional housing. I saw more drugs in jail than when I was dealing drugs.”Īfter graduation, Brooks began looking for ways to help those in recovery.
“But the judge opted to put me in a situation where recovery was very hard. “I was charged with 13 felonies that I absolutely deserved,” Brooks says.
That direction was to get sober.”Ī 12-step program (up to three meetings a day for 11 months) plus 30 days at Caron Treatment Center helped forge a path to sobriety before his sentencing-one that was almost upended by his prison term. “I was out of options, so I had to take other people’s direction. “I was in so much trouble that lying wasn’t going to get me out of it,” says Brooks. “I became dependent on drugs and alcohol not because of clinical anxiety or depression, but because of the way they made me feel,” he says. He’d been drinking and taking drugs since he was 14, and he doesn’t make any excuses. The next day, March 1, he began his difficult march to sobriety.
28, 2014, was the last time Brooks used drugs or alcohol. I was out on bail for 11 months, then sentenced to nine to 23 months in jail and spent seven and a half months in Montgomery County Correctional Facility.”įeb. 28, 2014, the police showed up at my house 42 days later, I was arraigned. “Lying and manipulating was my way of life.”īrooks recites the details of his downfall: “On Feb. The four-month investigation made national headlines, and Brooks emerged as the “preppy pot peddler,” a square-jawed lacrosse star from a well-to-do Villanova family living a double life as a dealer. Then 18 years old and a recent graduate of the Haverford School, Brooks was named as the co-mastermind of the “Main Line Takeover Project,” which orchestrated illegal drug sales in local high schools and colleges. In 2014, he was arrested for criminal conspiracy, possession with the intent to deliver controlled substances, and a host of other charges. Timmy Brooks became a Main Line legend for all of the wrong reasons. Photo by Tessa Marie Images Sobriety and second chances have buoyed the once-troubled Haverford School alum and former drug dealer.