National Recovery Month: It Takes A Community
Photo by Lydia Berglar – Staff, volunteers, graduates, and the women currently in the Hope House gathered on Sept. 6 to support and encourage one another and celebrate their recovery stories.
By LYDIA BERGLAR
News Editor
In 1989, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) designated September as National Recovery Month, so this month, the State of Georgia, Dade County, and A Hand Up Ministry are bringing awareness to recovery from addiction.
The Georgia Council for Recovery celebrates the month with the Georgia Recovers Bus Tour, making stops in 75 communities across the state. A Hand Up Ministry is recognizing graduates of the program on its Facebook page throughout the month, and the Hope House hosted a homecoming for the women in the ministry on Sept. 6.
The Hope House Homecoming invited graduates to return for a luau themed afternoon with women currently in the program, staff members, and friends of the Hope House. Kelly Reagin (Hope House program director) highlighted how proud the Hand Up team is of the women who have entered recovery and how important community is for long-term recovery.
Reagin herself is a recovered addict, so she knows a thing or two about the importance of community. As she explained at the bus tour’s Trenton stop on Monday, Sept. 8, she first drank alcohol at age 13 and then became addicted to meth. She spent time in jail and at a maximum security prison.
She met the Lord while in prison, and her life began to change. She said, “I’m grateful for people and programs that walk alongside those of us in recovery. They didn’t just tell me change was possible—they helped me build it.”
Reagin told the Hope House women, “Even if you’re not in recovery, life’s tough, and we were never meant to do this thing alone. We need each other. The Bible talks on and on about how important relationships are. God is a relational God. He wants us to have good, strong, healthy relationships.”
Photo by Lydia Berglar – Kerry, a graduate of the Hope House, spoke about the challenges that continue to come in life even after entering recovery.
She said, “We need to straighten each other’s crowns,” and the afternoon was an example of just that—women in the program, graduates, and staff/volunteers lifted each other up, listened well, laughed, cried and prayed for each other.
Reagin talked about hardships that can pull recovered addicts back into addiction but explained how relationships are part of the battle against addiction.
Three Hope House graduates then shared. First, Kerry talked about recent difficulties she’s faced. Even though her journey through the Hope House ended a few years ago, life continues to throw challenges her way. She shared that her natural instinct is to fight alone instead of leaning on others, but when life became more than she could bear, the Lord showed up in miraculous ways. She realized that even though she’d made it through A Hand Up, she still needed God and community daily.
Next, Skye shared her story of addiction and then recovery through the Hope House. While she was in the Dade County Jail, Candice (one of the program graduates) made visits to the jail to encourage inmates that there is hope. At first, Skye had no idea that Candice was a recovered addict. She had never before met someone who had come out of addiction and returned to a normal, healthy life.
Meeting Candice made a powerful impression on Skye, and she became determined to get into the Hope House because she wanted a story like Candice’s.
Photo by Lydia Berglar – The Georgia Recovers Bus is collecting signatures from recovered addicts all across the state. Some Dade Countians added their names to the bus during the Sept. 8 stop in Trenton.
Third, Molly shared that in the midst of her addiction, she did have seven years of sobriety and even started a great career, but she had not fully recovered. She fell back into addiction as a functioning addict before eventually hitting rock bottom.
Molly also spoke during the bus tour’s stop, saying, “Even when I wasn’t in active addiction, I wasn’t recovered because my mind was sick, my body was sick, my soul was sick. I had a God problem looking for a chemical solution.”
She found that recovery came from God, and she also needed community. “It’s not just the community of people with A Hand Up; it’s the entire county of Dade. They have accepted me.”
At the bus tour stop in Trenton on the square, Reagin, Kerry, and Molly spoke as well as Candice, Chad, Casey, and Andi. Themes throughout many of their stories are restored relationships with children and family, careers, becoming productive members of society, making amends, and the healing and salvation that comes from the Lord.
All seven are now leaders with A Hand Up, encouraging others that there is hope.
