WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) - At 12-years-old Andre Turner searched for a connection. "Just wanted to hang out with friends and have a good time, and, you know, really experimenting on things," Andre recalled. An experiment turned into a bond with marijuana. "Became an everyday thing, and then it became a coping mechanism, and then it just became a full-blown habit," he said. The habit evolved to harder drugs. Gold As Ice benefit game helps kids battling cancer "I was emotionally bankrupt and spiritually bankrupt and mentally exhausted," he said. Andre spent the next 16 years chained to his addictions. "I found myself at a really rock bottom. I decided I had enough," he said. A choice to get clean led Andre to a sober living home where he met Sue Banbury. "I got into recovery 36 years ago," Sue said. In 2022, Sue started the Wichita Recovery Hub. Its members meet once a week. "I have a people group that I could relate to, and they could relate to me," the founder said. In January 2025, the nonprofit will open a place where people in recovery can go and connect. "You can only go to so many 12-step meetings in a week or a day," Sue said. "This is someplace they can go every day and kind of get out of their head and get focused on recovery." Harbor House uses empathy to support people experiencing domestic violence The Hub is an emerging member of the Recovery Café Network and will be the first to open in Kansas. It will serve coffee, have a pool table and space for 12-step meetings, classes, and events. "We will have people there to help people navigate these resources. We will have peer mentors and folks who will walk alongside people to access those resources," explained Carrie Corliss, Wichita Recovery Hub board member. Now three years into recovery, Andre is on the Wichita Recovery Hub's board, serving the community that saved him. "When I have people around me that can encourage me and push me to keep going forward, it has always helped me. It's still helping me, and I think it will always help me," Andre said. Every connection creates a path to change. The hub will be built near Douglas and Washington. The soft opening is set for January, and the grand opening will be in March.