William Atkinson

William Atkinson is a person in long term recovery from substance abuse addiction. Clean and sober since February of 2006, he moved to Pinellas county Florida in 2008 and started working as a behavioral health technician at a local treatment program for adolescences.  In 2009, after only working in the field for six months, he was promoted to the recreational counselor position for adults, and would become the lead behavioral tech, a case worker, and substance abuse counselor in training until he opened his own business, Tampa Bay Sober Living, Inc., in Nov of 2011. In December of 2012 he graduated Cum Laude from Springfield College’s school of human services with a bachelors in human services concentrated on addictions. In the spring of 2013 Tampa Bay Sober Living, Inc. became the first Florida Association of Recovery Residences (FARR) accredited program on the West Coast of Florida, and he has helped multiple programs in his area gain FARR accreditation since then. In 2014 he was a founding member of the non-profit Recovery Epicenter Foundation which gained its 501-c3 status in 2015 and of which he is currently the executive director. In 2016 he became the 25th Certified Recovery Resident Administrator (CRRA) in the state, and in 2017 achieved his Certified Recovery Support Specialist (CRSS).

Since opening Tampa Bay Sober Living, Will grew his recovery supportive practice from a six bedroom duplex into close to 100 beds throughout Pinellas, Hillsborough, and Pasco Counties. In the fall of 2017, he chose to partner with the leaders of the FARR accredited program The Next 24 located in Pasco. With his new partners, both Tampa Bay Sober Living, Inc. and TN24 are no longer operational, and a new company Associate Recovery Communities (ARC) has been created. As the CEO of ARC, Will works with an amazing team of professionals to provide over 100 recovery supportive beds throughout Pinellas, Hillsborough, and Pasco counties.