Members can attend Narcotics Anonymous meetings, have some coffee while checking their e-mail, or chill on a cozy couch and watch television. After 9 p.m. on Fridays, the meeting chairs are cleared and the oasis is transformed into a party house that includes a DJ, disco lights and dancing. A few feet away, a crowd surrounds a card table to watch an intense game of spades, and pool players line up to get their turn against the reigning winner.

Welcome to Club 12, a new establishment that aspires to change the face of addiction recovery in this city by providing a drug- and alcohol-free social club in Northeast Central Durham.

For those who are in the early stages of recovery, Club 12 provides a safe place they can seek support, advice and hope from others who have lived clean for years, members said. In turn, newcomers inspire those who have many clean years under their belt, they said.

"Recovery to me isn't just going to NA meetings, AA meetings, and listening to the message there," said Tony Alderman, a board member of the nonprofit club. "Recovery happens between people. And this is a place where people are talking to one another on a face to face basis."

Melvin Whitley, a former addict, community activist and a member of the board that governs The Durham Center, said that changing a behavior in a world of temptations is one of the major challenges for those dependent on drugs and alcohol.

"Once I am free of drugs, I am still left with my behavior," said Whitley, who stopped using drugs after visiting a similar organization in Atlanta many years ago.

Since the organization's grand opening on April 10, Club 12's individual membership has grown to 45, with about six organizations also signing on, said club founder O'Mar Taylor.

"It is getting better every week," said Taylor, who invested more than $40,000 of his own money to renovate and open Club 12. The club, however, needs at least 120 members and support from 12 organizations to comfortably sustain itself, he said. Local substance abuse organizations that initially said they would support Club 12, haven't been able to keep up their part of the bargain during this economy, Taylor said.

The start

Since 2006, Taylor, 48, of Durham, has been involved with local nonprofits and other community organizers trying to create such a club in Durham, but funding never came through, he and others said.

Then last year, Taylor, founder of Just A Clean House - a nonprofit that provides housing to people who have been drug free for at least seven days - kept riding by 1212 Angier Avenue, a building that once housed a gym where he watched his son box. The address caught his attention, said Taylor, a participantin a 12-step recovery program.

"So I am thinking, 'You know what, maybe this is supposed to happen now,'" he said.

Taylor contacted local agencies. He picked a name, and a logo. He visited drug-free social clubs in Philadelphia, New Jersey and Wake County.

In the fall of 2009, Taylor called another meeting. About 50 attended, and put up $1,000 to start. With a board formed, its members committed to raise money and start selling memberships, but other organizations' support waned as renovation costs went up.

The old building presented challengesfrom foundationto roof, to water seeping in from under the building and ruining recently painted floors.

"I mopped up 36 buckets of water with an industrial mop," Taylor said. "I painted the floor three times."

Membership

William Ruffin, a Durham native, started his recovery with the help of a similar club house in Kentucky, he said. In 1993, Ruffin moved from Durham to Kentucky determined to shed his crack cocaine habit that consumed 75 percent of his income, he said. In Kentucky he helped staff banquets at a hotel. And when he got off work at midnight or early in the morning, he'd hit the club.

"I could go there, talk to people, get in touch with recovery," said Ruffin, a 46-year-old who moved back to Durham in 1996.

For Ruffin, Club 12 is a place that can bridge gaps.

"I think there is still a lot of misunderstanding of who addicts are," he said. "We are people. We do recover. We are a viable part of the community."

On April 15, Jockie Short finished a 10-year prison term for armed robbery. Drugs and drinking had been part of his life since he was a child, but he stopped using in prison and committed to change, he said. But when he was released, he feared the temptation and the various changes he faced. He didn't want to sit at home alone, nor venture out toward the old temptations, he said.

Then he learned of Club 12.

"I can dance and play pool, and I don't to worry about seeing no beer on the table," he said. "I am walking and talking with new people, getting someone out of new people. New people are getting something out of me."

For Zachary Marshall, Club 12 provides a social outlet that doesn't involve yet another night at the movies, or fighting temptation at night clubs.

"This is heavy set for us," said Marshall, 51 of Durham, who was at Club 12 on a Friday night earlier this year with his stepson and girlfriend.

"I know it is safe."