“I think people think we’re all criminals, that we’re manipulative, we’re deceptive, and really we’re just sick, and we’re spiritually bankrupt, and we don’t know how to live in society,” Kelly Rooks said. “So, this place really teaches you how to get your life back on track.”
Rooks is in phase two (the last step) of the Brighton Recovery Center for Women. That means she can now go out and get a job but can still stay at the recovery center to stay accountable.
The recovery center is a long-term residential treatment facility located at 375 Weaver Road in Florence. It has 100 beds for women, and many of its participants come from the Department of Corrections. The program helps women recover from chronic substance use disorder and move toward a life of sobriety and productivity.
The first step in the recovery center is called “Safe Off the Streets.” This step provides a safe, non-medical environment for recovery planning.
Rooks said she was at the Kenton County Detention Center for a couple of drug possession charges and made parole. Her parole officer then sent her to the recovery center on Feb. 13.
“The whole time from the beginning, my parole officer, she comes here on Wednesdays, and I would tell her every day I would be counting down the days till I got off parole so I could go home,” Rooks said. “And once it got here, I wasn’t making any plans to leave. I knew there was a reason for that, so I just went with my gut, and I’m glad I made that decision.”
Rooks was released from parole in July.
Once a woman completes the safe off the streets step, she moves on to “Motivational Tracks.” This stage provides a low-pressure environment for committing to the recovery process so that participants can experience the hope of change.
Tayler Ruth is on the motivational track after coming to the recovery center on June 20.
In the first part of the track, women walk two and a half miles to and from a church to attend classes. In motivational track two, where Ruth is, they begin to fellowship with the community; they go home on the weekend to see their family and start to integrate back into society.
Ruth said she failed a drug test for child protective services, and the judge found it fit for her to come to the recovery center to help get her children back.
One unique aspect of the recovery center is its peer-driven model, which, Ruth said, has been helpful for her.
“We don’t have staff members that tell us what to do,” Ruth said. “We have our peers to hold us accountable and direct us. So that’s been very helpful for me because I’m used to trying to go over people’s heads and things like that. This way, I have to actually talk to the people that are in the same situation as me and listen to them and learn from them.”
Brighton Center Recovery Service Coordinator Richelle McClanahan completed the program and now works for Brighton Center.
McClanahan said part of the recovery at the center is a ripple effect of women helping each other. She said she sees people coming back who have been sober for 10 years, and they are sponsoring women and giving back what was taught to them.
The Brighton Recovery Center for Women celebrated its 15th anniversary last year.
“That’s what we’ve always been taught to do,” she said. “You give it back, and you help the younger sisters, and you show them and guide them throughout their path of recovery. That’s what it’s about. It’s helping others and continuing to work with the women at Brighton and the community.”
After completing the motivational track, the women enter “Phase One.” This phase provides solutions to the problems of addiction. The programs are more focused and intense than the motivational tracks. The goals are increased social wellness, economic independence and recovery from addiction.
“This place is really where you find that true love because when you come in, you’re broken; you don’t even have self-worth,” McClanahan said. “You’re so ridden with self-doubt and fear, and this place literally builds you back up and gives you those tools to go back into society and be successful.”
Brighton Center Senior Vice President Melissa Sommer said the recovery center gives women a place to go after incarceration who may not have housing or access to the housing choice voucher program (also referred to as section 8).
“Many times, the traditional ways of getting housing vouchers preclude some of the women from getting that voucher because sometimes they have had involvement with the justice system,” Sommer said. “In many ways, it’s a fresh start. It’s an opportunity to have access that is not just bestowed upon them, but that they earn.”
McClanahan said it’s critical for the women to complete the program but noted that the housing opportunity was an advantage.
“You can get put back into a bad situation,” she said. “Say I’m living with my parents, and my old boyfriend lives right down the road. That puts you right back in that environment where it’s that negativity and that using environment.”
On average, women spend 9-12 months at the center.
The recovery center started as a tight partnership with the Department of Corrections to give folks a place to go when they got out of the detention centers. Sommer said they have since seen a funding shift. At first, the Department of Corrections paid for a broader portion of the program and then limited it. The program is also supported by community development block grant dollars.
Sommer said she believes the stigma around substance use disorders has decreased today from when the center first opened.
“In this day and age, people have a neighbor, a daughter, a son, a niece, a nephew, a colleague who have taken this journey with substance use disorder, and it offers them to see the human side of this disease,” she said.
Rooks said recovery to her means freedom and the ability to not live in fear. Rooks said her kids don’t have to worry about where she’s at, what she’s doing and whether she’s going to live or die.
On July 3, Rook’s brother died because of alcoholism.
“These people really got me through that,” she said. “If I wouldn’t have been here, I don’t know what would have happened.”
Not only were people at the center there for her, but they also helped her with the cremation process. Rooks said she was the one to take him off the ventilator.
“I think I was supposed to see that,” she said. “I think that was just a part of my journey.”
Ruth said recovery means freedom from a substance. She said she can be a mother and a daughter today because of the things she’s learned at the recovery center.
While she was incarcerated, Ruth’s grandmother died. She said Brighton Center allowed her to go to the funeral, but she had to take an “older sister” with her, who was another woman in recovery.
“At first, I was very upset,” Ruth said. “I thought it was an invasion of privacy. I thought my family was going to look at me crazy, but when I got there and I had the support that Brighton provided me, I was forever grateful. I don’t know if I could have made it through that funeral the way I did without someone being there and holding my hand and just loving me.”
