Our story
Built by women who have been there.
Alcami Project, Inc. was founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 2023.
Where we started
Alcami Project was founded in March 2023 by April Luderus, a Certified Peer Specialist and Certified Peer Specialist Trainer with lived experience of substance use disorder.
She started this work because she knew what was missing. She knew what it felt like to look for a safe place and come up empty, and she knew the difference a single stable home could make. Alcami exists because that gap was still there and someone had to close it.
Our governing board is one hundred percent peer identified. Every person shaping this organization has lived some version of what our residents are living now.
We did not start with a strategic plan. We started with a kitchen table and a conviction that women deserve better.
What drives us
Our mission is to enhance the quality of life for women from marginalized communities pursuing their own version of recovery by providing peer-led housing, life skills support, and community-based systems of care. In other words: safe housing, real-life skills, and connection to the people and services that help women build lasting recovery. Her recovery. Her dignity. Our community.
What we believe
Peer leadership
Every program we run is shaped by women with lived experience. We hire from within the community we serve.
Dignity first
We do not use pity language, rescue framing, or before-and-after stories. Every woman who walks through our door is already whole.
Whole-family thinking
Recovery does not happen in isolation from family. We support the relationships that matter most to the women we serve.
Honest hope
We are hopeful and honest at the same time. We do not promise easy. We promise present.