Media & News:
Director's Corner— Summer 2010
by Sharon Chambers, Executive Director
Celebrating sober living
Summer greetings from Residence XII. We are celebrating the glorious weather and the July opening of our new sober house.
We have known for quite a while that sober housing options were a growing need among our patients. Women often seek a safe place to live while completing outpatient or continuing +care treatment and adjusting to early recovery.
The future is now
Sober housing has always been a piece of Residence XII’s expansion plan. But when one of our adjacent rental homes was vacated, it became apparent that to better serve our patients, this piece of the plan should not wait. The Program Committee comprised of Board and staff members jumped on the opportunity to create sober housing.
Helping hands
The home required extensive repairs and improvements. Thanks to a generous contribution from one of our major donors, it has been transformed from a dilapidated house to a nice home. We are also very grateful to our alumnae and several Board members who furnished the entire house. It looks wonderful!
Enjoying recovery
The sober house can accommodate five women, and we generally expect tenants to stay for a minimum of six months. The women pay rent, and are required to be actively working a recovery program which might include treatment groups, 12 step meetings, work, school and/or volunteer service. It is obviously a clean and sober environment with some restrictions, but the women who live there are responsible for structuring and using their time to solidify and enjoy recovery.
We are excited about adding this sober housing option as the first step toward expansion of our services in the future. Our mission, as always, is to increase the number of women and families we can serve. My thanks to everyone who made this sober house a reality!