Service Outreach and Recovery (SOAR), a multicomponent program for indigent and residentially unstable clients, aims to reduce drug and alcohol use and increase participation in formal substance abuse treatment programs and 12-step self-help groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous. SOAR targets individuals at soup kitchens who acknowledge current or past substance abuse problems. The program sequentially delivers two manual-driven group counseling modules–Motivational Enhancement for Recovery (MER) followed by Education and Skills for Recovery (ESR)–to a group of 3-10 clients. The 12 1-hour sessions of MER and 36 1-hour sessions of ESR are delivered thrice weekly over a period of 4 months in a trailer at the conclusion of the soup kitchen’s lunchtime meal service. During MER sessions, participants learn about addiction, recovery, and readiness for change. They are encouraged to (1) discuss the ways in which substance use affects their lives by contrasting their current situation with the way they would like things to be, (2) review the options available for effecting the desired change, and (3) decide on treatment strategies they feel ready to adopt. ESR focuses on building skills for relapse prevention that include coping strategies for stress-provoking situations and painful emotions, methods to reduce the health risks associated with injection drug use (e.g., HIV infection), and identification and avoidance of emotional and situational triggers for drinking and drug use. ESR sessions also use cognitive restructuring to identify and offer alternatives to negative practices such as blaming, malingering, emotion blunting, deceiving, and dwelling on thoughts that trigger the desire to use drugs and alcohol.