The People Who Started Shepard & Stone

Charles Castro Barbero is Co-Founder and CFO of Shepard & Stone Foundation, a Christ-centered recovery organization dedicated to guiding individuals on their path to sobriety and spiritual renewal.

Charles carries a long family history touched by addiction. He has held loved ones through the darkest seasons of that struggle, and he has also known the grief of losing loved ones to this disease. That loss is not an abstraction for him: it is the reason Shepard & Stone exists. Out of it came a deep, unshakable conviction: that lasting sobriety is not found in willpower or programs alone, but only through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

For years, Charles believed this was his calling, even before he had the people or the platform to carry it out. He waited through seasons of preparation, trusting that God’s timing would bring the right people together when it was meant to. Shepard & Stone is the fruit of that waiting, something that could not have come together by effort or timeline alone.

A licensed peer support specialist in California, Charles has spent years supporting individuals through the Emotional Health Association, a nonprofit built on sobriety through peer support. He is a certified biblical counselor through the Association of Certified Biblical Counselors (ACBC), integrating biblical counseling into his work at Shepard & Stone, and he is actively involved in Calvary Chapel Chino Hills, where he continues to grow in his relationship with Christ.

Charles leads with empathy for every family walking through this fight, because he has walked through it himself. His heart for Shepard & Stone is simple: to reach people who feel helpless and hopeless, and to show them the love of Jesus Christ, a love that does not see them as a diagnosis or a statistic, but as someone worth fighting for, worth loving, and worth restoring.

Charles and his fellow co-founders dedicate Verity Advisors and Shepard & Stone Foundation to our Lord Jesus Christ. Without Him, none of this would be possible.

Darrius Outland leads operations at Shepard & Stone Foundation with the belief that recovery is both clinical work and sacred work. After finding freedom through Christ 12 years ago, he discovered a calling to help others find hope and healing.

Having witnessed alcoholism affect generations of his family, Darrius brings a deeply personal commitment to every person Shepard & Stone serves. As COO, he works to ensure Shepard & Stone is a safe, compassionate environment where people are seen as more than a diagnosis and given room to rebuild their health and worth.