Mary’s House, is a collaborative venture between the community and women in recovery in the greater Cleveland community to establish a facility that offers a drop-in resource center that provides aid and support for women suffering from addiction, and simultaneously encouraging and assisting women in finding their pathways to recovery. 

 

Mary’s House will be a place for women suffering from addiction operated by women in recovery that provides a safe, healthy, and nurturing environment for the purpose of developing friendships and peer support focusing on treatment, wellness and recovery. Mary’s House provides a place for community education, socialization, and networking to help eliminate the stigma and discrimination associated with chemical addiction. The site will provide food and snacks, arts and craft supplies, sporting goods, board games, writing implements and journals, plant materials, literature and music. As places of connection and inclusion, Mary’s Houses will be incorporate the round table concept. The roundtable concept are symbols of equal voice and value, welcoming and an invitation to come share and be fed physically, spiritually, emotionally, and intellectually.   

 

Mary’s House in its design concept provides a place for women who are in the state of active addiction and/or early recovery to find assistance for support and refuge.  In a very simplistic approach, Mary’s House will offer any woman struggling with addiction a place to get the following: 1) Basic needs supports (e.g. food, personal hygiene, clothing, assistance with shelter, first aid and/or assistance with obtaining healthcare etc.) 2) Non-judgmental relationships with supportive peers from the recovery and non-recovery communities, 3) Assistance with recovery management issues to help in the sustaining healthy and wholesome recovery.  Mary’s House is a place that helps prevent any woman struggling with addiction from having to put themselves in dangerous situations because they need to eat, to bathe, to wash or to talk unconditional to another human being.

 

Mary’s House hours are 24/7 providing in-person and/or hotline supports to women and their families.

 

Mary’s House provides a cadre of female volunteers primarily from the recovery community to provide supportive services.  The program recruits females from the recovery community who have demonstrated long-term recovery.  A live-in support staff will be recruited to operate the facility during the night periods to assist in getting women to a safe haven.  Night services include hotline support, crisis intervention connections, and referral.  The live-in support will be provided free room and board. Other volunteers will be recruited include persons (preferably women) to provide education and awareness around women’s issues and concerns related to such topics as HIV/AIDS, economics, relationships, self-empowerment, physical and emotional supports, etc.

 

May’s House will operate on a donation-based funding.  The program will develop and implement fundraising, solicitation of gifts and donations and use “sweat equity” contributions from the recovery community and its supporters.