Jim is transforming our approach to addiction by combining proven recovery strategies with compassionate, faith-centered support. He bridges gaps between treatment, community resources, and the justice system, ensuring individuals receive holistic care that addresses the mind, body, and spirit.
Jim's service to the addiction recovery community includes seats on the Sarasota County Criminal Justice Commission and the Criminal Justice, Mental Health, and Substance Abuse Planning Council. He teaches recovery classes in the Sarasota County Jail’s where he offers guidance, hope, and practical tools to support long-term transformation. In 2014 he co-founded The Crossing Ministries.
Healing the whole person through love, compassion, and faith-based support, The Crossings equips clients with the skills and confidence needed to thrive as productive members of their communities. Every person who walks through our doors is met with dignity, encouragement, and a belief in their God-given value and potential.
The Crossings Church is a place of healing, joy, surrender, and life-changing encounters with God’s. We meet people exactly where they are and surround them with love, encouragement, and hope.​ Together, our lives are transformed in by the grace of God and truth of Scripture.
Jim Rouches lived a life of addiction and crime. As a weapons trafficker and heroin smuggler, he was intimately familiar with America's most notorious penitentiaries. When a desperate prison break left him lost in the Everglades, bleeding out in a motel bathroom, and captured by a statewide manhunt, his fate seems sealed. Then, facing a life sentence, in solitary confinement:
the impossible happened.
Our team is forging key partnerships and preparing to bring Jim’s extraordinary story to the screen. Grounded in resilience, faith, and restoration, this project speaks hope not only to those fighting addiction, but to anyone confronting emptiness, despair, or a loss of the dignity and purpose that belong to all of us as children of God.
