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HEN HE WAS 16 years old, Jon Ruby tried alcohol for the first time. “All the voices in my head that said I wasn’t good enough went away,” says Ruby, who is now 47. Soon he was drinking regularly and experimenting with drugs. At 22, he began to abuse cocaine and eventually spent time in jail. Within a decade he was homeless, and estranged from his family and friends. “I was emotionally and spiritually bankrupt,” he says. While living in a shelter, things started to go right: he found Alcoholics Anon- ymous and, eventually, his faith. By 2006, Ruby was sober. He began work- 8 may 2021 ing in a rehabilitation centre, feeling that it was his turn to help other peo- ple struggling with addiction. Through his eight years at the centre, he learned that, even after treatment, people need continued help integrating back into society. “There are a lot of pressures involved with getting back to normal life,” he says. Ruby founded Union City Church in Ottawa in 2016, focusing the church’s programming on addiction recovery. Three years later, he and a team from the church launched a social enter- prise that brews, bottles and sells the fermented tea drink kombucha—or