Delancey Street and Synanon

As we have learned, Delancey Street has a lot in common with Synanon. To start, the founder of Delancey Street, John Maher, was a former member of Synanon. Delancey street has a lot of similarities with Synanon, which may have contributed to why they are still around today.


Delancey Street is run by its members; people who are in the program. Members do everything from administrative work all the way to running the businesses that Delancey Street is known for, like the restaurant and the christmas tree lot. Delancey Street does not charge people for its treatment, much like Synanon. The minimum stay at Delancey Street is two years and the average stay is four years. There are three rules that must be followed by the people at Delancey Street, these rules are:

1. no drugs or alcohol 
2. no physical violence
3. no threats of violence 

Residents at Delancey Street do not have to pay to be a part of the program, like with most other programs today. They may work at the restaurant or other Delancey street businesses, but they do not get paid. The residents get food, housing, clothing, education, and other things at no cost to them. So not getting paid is not that bad after all. Plus, the program is free. I think the setup is pretty good.

As I was looking on the Delancey Street website, I found it interesting that they helped move over 12,000 violent racial gang members into nonviolence. These people went from living violent lives to practicing active nonviolence. This is interesting to compare to Synanon because Synanon started as nonviolent and practiced active nonviolence but turned extremely violent in the end. Delancey Street has been able to stick with their original goals and so far nothing has gotten in the way of that. It has been the same program pretty much since it first started. 

When we were first learning about Synanon, we started to watch a movie about the start on Synanon (before the violence kicked in). In this movie, a newcomer to Synanon was paired up with a member who has been there a while. That person was supposed to show the newcomer how things were done and explain to them the rules. They were kind of like a mentor for the newbies. This goes with the belief of Delancey Street of each one teach one. Each member of Delancey Street helps the others out. They are the experts and the staff of the program.

A few weeks ago I was able to meet a man who went through the Delancey Street program. He now runs a program at a men's jail. He was telling the group I was with that the Delancey Street program in intense. "They call you on your shit" he told us, when referring to the game. Delancey Street plays the game just like Synanon did. He told us that it is used to attack certain behavior, not to attack an individual. This is another thing that Delancey Street and Synanon have in common. Both play the game and it seems like it has been helpful to the people who have played it. I also found it interesting to hear him and others call the game "attack therapy". I think calling it the game sounds nicer, but attack therapy pretty much tells you exactly how it is. Attack therapy is more straightforward as to what it is about.

A family member of mine had the opportunity to go to Delancey Street. He was heavily addicted to heroin and cocaine. He lost everything from it, his wife, daughter and other members of his family. Luckily now he is clean, but when he was looking for a program, he refused to go to Delancey Street. He told me that he did not want anyone telling him what to do. He knew about their attack therapy/the game and he wanted no part in it. He did not want to be "called out on his shit", he knew what he did but did not want to take responsibility. If he went to Delancey Street he knew he would have to take responsibility for his actions. Now, luckily he has been clean for about three or four years now, but I think Delancey Street would have been great for him. They could have helped him reintegrate into society.

A major difference that I have noticed between Synanon and Delancey Street is that the founder of Synanon, Charles Dederich, believed his members could not go back into society. He did not think they would be able to make it out there on their own. He had no faith in them. He wanted to keep them in Synanon forever. He believed that the only way they would remain clean was if he made them stay at Synanon forever. Delancey Street works to modify your behavior and helps you work on problems so you can stay clean and sober when it is your time to leave. They give you the tools you need to succeed in live. The people at Delancey Street have faith in its members. Delancey Street has graduated over 18,000 people into society and helped them to be successful. That is the goal all along, to get the people back into society and have them be successful members of society. They do not want to keep them there in the program forever.


* http://www.delanceystreetfoundation.org/index.php (this website was used as a source for the blog)