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Stories of Recovery. Voices of Hope. Healing Together.
The Back from Broken Foundation was born from the deeply personal journey of Colorado Public Radio host Vic Vela, whose recovery from addiction and mental health challenges inspired millions through the award-winning Back from Broken podcast. What began as Vic’s story of survival has grown into a movement — one that uses the power of storytelling to bring light to the darkness of addiction, trauma, and loss.
Our mission is simple yet profound: to tell real stories of recovery that inspire hope and remind people they are not alone. Through live events, speaking panels, music gatherings, and collaborations with artists and advocates in recovery, we create spaces where truth and healing connect communities.
Your support helps us:
Produce and share powerful stories that break stigma and spark empathy.
Host live storytelling and music events featuring people in recovery, building community through shared experience.
Expand outreach to schools, treatment centers, and community partners, ensuring that stories of hope reach those who need them most.
When you give to the Back from Broken Foundation, you are helping someone find their way back — from addiction, from despair, from the brink — toward hope, recovery, and renewal. Every story we tell has the power to save a life, and your generosity makes that possible.
Together, we are proof that no one is ever too broken to heal.
Our mission is fundamentally about inspiring hope and promoting greater awareness regarding the persistent challenges of addiction and mental health that many individuals face daily. We strive to achieve this meaningful goal by sharing valuable recovery experiences and powerful stories of resilience that effectively highlight the incredible strength of the human spirit. We do this through the transformative power of storytelling, the healing properties of music, and the critical bonds formed in fostering genuine care and understanding in others.
We are all broken.
Every one of us knows what it’s like to suffer, to struggle, to grieve, to lose hope.
I certainly do.
I’ve rode in the back of ambulances as they raced against the clock to save me from an overdose. I’ve ruined finances by putting my cocaine addiction ahead of rent, utilities and credit card payments. I was told by a doctor at a hospital that my HIV status had progressed to the point where I nearly had full-blown AIDS. I’ve lost many, many friends and lovers to drugs and alcohol. Someone once shared an old photo of me and about 10 other regulars who drank every night at our favorite bar— and I counted seven of them who had died.
So yeah, I know what it’s like to feel broken. But I also know what it’s like to make a comeback— to come back from a broken place. I believe in my heart that, as long as we’re above the ground, there’s still hope for recovery.
We can recover.
That’s why, in 2020, I created a podcast about recovery and comeback stories called “Back From Broken.” Because we’re all broken at some point. And in a profound way I find that beautiful. It’s beautiful because in this day and age where there’s so much division and polarization, one thing we have going for us is empathy. When you tell me your story about feeling broken and how you got better, I hear my own journey in yours. And someone else, maybe it’s a loved one, maybe it’s a stranger, hears their own story in the one you just told— and that story then becomes someone else’s survival guide.
And from that, we build a foundation for healing and hope…
A Back From Broken Foundation.
Vic Vela
Executive Director, Founder
Organization name
Back from Broken Foundation
2025
Tax id (EIN)
33-4058718
Category
Mental Health & Crisis Intervention, Public & Societal Benefit, Civil Rights, Social Action & Advocacy, Arts, Culture & Humanities, Education, Youth Development
Organization Size
Medium Organization
Address
2738 S TELLURIDE CTDenver, CO, US
Aurora, CO, US
Jefferson County, CO, US
Douglas County, CO, US
CO, US