Oral history interview with Kevin McEneaney, 2014

Biographical Note

Raised in a large and close family on Long Island, Kevin McEneaney became a recreational drug user, and then heroin addict. Through arrest and government intervention, McEneaney met Ronald Williams and began a long career at Phoenix House. His early years were in the in the area of public relations, developing outreach and fundraising campaigns, serving as liaison with neighborhoods, and writing education materials for schools. By the 1980s, McEneaney became Clinical Director. Eventually, he became Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Phoenix House Foundation. In 2006, McEneaney left Phoenix House to establish his own consulting service.

Scope and Contents

In the first session, McEneaney chronicles his childhood and the beginnings of his drug use, resulting in a stay at the Morris J. Bernstein Institute. After moving to Phoenix House's Coney Island facility, McEneaney narrates becoming an increasingly integral part of the public relations team throughout the 1970s. He discusses his impressions of Phoenix House's board and its dynamics and prerogatives. In the second session, McEneaney discusses the therapeutic community model and the changes it underwent as Phoenix House's leadership became more professionalized. He describes his attempts to "codify" or standardize the therapeutic community method. He details the acquisition of the Yorktown facility. In terms of organizational culture, he discusses the distance between the operations and the public relations sides of Phoenix House. Finally, McEneaney speaks on Phoenix House's important relationship with Corrections and the prison system, and subsequently with various consulting firms

Subjects

• Drug addicts--Rehabilitation--United States.
• Drug courts--United States.
• Executives--Interviews.
• Heroin abuse--United States--History--20th century.
• Interviews.
• McEneaney, Kevin E.--Interviews.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Phoenix House (Organization)
• Substance abuse--Treatment.
• Teenagers--Drug use--United States.
• Therapeutic communities.
• Thurner, Lance, interviewer.

Access Conditions

Copyright by the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, 2014