ABOUT HARMONY ACADEMY
Your story. Our support.
The mission of Harmony Academy is to provide a safe, sober, and supportive gold standard education for youth in recovery, where they can develop skills and strengths needed for personal, academic, vocational, and community success.
The hows and whys for each student are different, but the goal remains the same: to help them rewrite their next chapter. Rather than returning students to the same places with the old faces where relapse is most likely, Harmony Academy offers a new environment with individualized support to uncover the strengths, skills and passion needed for success. Whether personal, academic, vocational or community-focused growth, Harmony is the start. We help our students wee what they can't. A new story is possible.
Our core values
Engagement
Engaging fully in life, in community, and in the process of change.Commitment
Approaching life in new ways, with the goal of staying free from chemicals and open to life on life’s terms.Hope
Acting from the belief that we have the power to change our own lives and positively impact those around us.Purpose
Acting creatively towards goals that better our own lives and the health of our communities.Empathy
Recognizing that other people are as important in their own lives as we are in our own.Connection
Connecting to our authentic selves, with those around us, and to a world of possibility.Recovery is a process of change through which people improve their health and wellness, live self-directed lives, and strive to reach their full potential.
Our story
Our Founders
Brent Canode
Pam Pearce
Tony Mann
Our story began in 2016 when three individuals in separate communities were interested in learning more about a documentary film that profiled a recovery high school in Houston, chronicling a different path to recovery and healing for young people with substance use disorders. That documentary was Generation Found, and we believed it would be a catalyst to change how youth in recovery are educated in our state.
Our communities were invited to watch Generation Found and after experiencing the film, they believed it was possible to launch a Recovery High School in Oregon and committed to making it a reality by 2020.
As we dreamed and shared the vision of a recovery school in Oregon, it was like an awakening for each person that heard the story. Whatever we needed to make the school a reality seemed to appear. We needed the perfect people on the team, and they came.
The three founders gathered a small but powerful coalition of cross-sector leaders and the Lake Oswego School District boldly sponsored the school as a free and appropriate public charter school-of-choice for any adolescent in recovery throughout the tri-county region. With the hiring of a passionate and visionary founding principal, Harmony Academy was born. It felt as though the answers came out of nowhere, perfectly matched to bring the school to life. In just three short years the school has become a reality.
Words cannot adequately express our gratitude for the support of the larger community and our many partners, nor can words sufficiently express our collective hope for the well-being of the students who will be served at Harmony Academy. They are the reason for this mission, and they all deserve a bright and compelling future.
On September 3, 2019, Oregon welcomed the first recovery high school in our state, and for that we are all eternally grateful.