The Longest Road: To Hell and Back Again from Addiction to Advocacy

by Joe Calendino, Gary Little

Overview

Recovery is the longest road toward a better future.

"When you are that far into addiction, one of the things you are ruled by, you live for, is the drug. It becomes your mother, your father, your sister, your brother, your lover."

In The Longest Road, Joe Calendino relives his harrowing journey from full-patch Hells Angel to rock bottom. Consumed by drugs and alcohol, he spiralled out of control and ended up strung out, desperate and destitute. Now it's his mission to protect at-risk youth from that same fate.

Written with his trusted confidant and former high school counsellor, Gary Little, this gripping memoir shares more than Calendino's story of relapse and redemption. It also tells the stories of the hidden angels who helped save his life, and the lives of the young people he now strives to help in his role as executive director of Yo Bro Yo Girl Youth Initiative. There are families who have lost loved ones to overdose, friends whose habits have landed them in gangs or in jail, and the call to action of a community that needs help, healing and hope—now more than ever.

Building on his first page-turning memoir, To Hell and Back, Calendino again shows he is living proof that sometimes all it takes is someone believing in you to completely change your life.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781774583340
Publisher:	Page Two Books, Inc.
Publication date:	08/13/2024
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.65(d)

About the Author

Joe Calendino is a former Hells Angel Nomad and the co-founder and Executive Director of Yo Bro Yo Girl Youth Initiative. A recovering addict, he has made it his life’s mission to support at-risk youth through programs designed to prevent them from following a path of gangs, drugs, and violence. In 2014, Calendino was honoured for his work with the Courage to Come Back Award from Coast Mental Health. Along with a business degree, Calendino holds a Substance Use Certificate from the Justice Institute of British Columbia. He published his first memoir, To Hell and Back, in 2017.

Gary Little is a writer and life-long educator who has served as a teacher, counsellor, principal, Associate Superintendent of Schools, Vancouver School Board, and Director of International Baccalaureate Educator Programs at the Faculty of Education, University of British Columbia. Little has also contributed his expertise as Board Member of Yo Bro Yo Girl Youth Initiative, President of the Vancouver Counsellors’ Association, and President of the Vancouver Association of Secondary School Administrators. Little was Joe Calendino’s high school counsellor at Templeton Secondary School in Vancouver, and is also co-author of Calendino’s first book, To Hell and Back.