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###  Edna House for Women: A Grassroots Approach to Help Women Gain Sobriety

 March 2017 | Volume 10 | Issue 3

Women in the cycle of addiction face a lot of  difficult barriers when trying to get sober. Shame and embarrassment, financial  barriers, and family responsibilities, such as lack of childcare or the fear of  losing their children can all deter women from seeking treatment for alcohol  and drug abuse.

The Edna House for Women in Cleveland, Ohio is a structured sober  living facility designed to provide food, shelter, and sobriety services to  women in need regardless of their ability to pay. The Edna House community  provides an opportunity for women with substance abuse issues (including  alcohol and heroin) who wish to recover from addiction. The Edna House provides  women with the tools they need for a lifetime of freedom from the disease of  alcoholism and chemical dependency. 

The Edna House is a grassroots organization with the  basic guiding principle of one woman helping another...helping another ...helping another. Over 86 percent of the women who have completed its program  are sober today. In order to increase its retention rate, the Edna House is  constantly adding to its curriculum, including the addition of Trauma Recovery  Groups and a Job Skills Development Program. The Edna House first opened in 2004 with a tiny  house serving three women and now have three facilities, which are home to  roughly 50 recovering women at any given time. The Edna House’s staff and  tireless volunteer base is composed entirely of alumni and women from the local  recovery community. The Edna House alumni association currently has over 300  former resident members. The program does not require evening staff, as they  believe that the women need to learn to govern themselves, respect each other,  and earn and maintain trust. In addition, Edna House has never had an  altercation of any kind.

There are three phases to the program. Phase I is  spent largely in group sessions facilitated by alumni and women from the local  recovery community. This phase generally last around 90 days and includes  traditional recovery-themed discussions as well as yoga, fitness, arts and  crafts, and meditation groups. Discussion topics include early recovery dynamics  and principles, anger management, stress management, parenting and family  issues, and trauma recovery. Each evening, participants attend sobriety meetings  with other recovering women from the community. They are also required to  participate in volunteer opportunities, which may include such activities as  feeding the homeless, assisting the local parish with special events, and  transporting holiday meals to home-bound individuals. They also assist and  participate in fundraising activities. GED classes are mandatory for non–high  school graduates, and the job skills program helps to prepare participants for  reintegration into society.

In Phase II, women are allowed to return to work  with more daily independence. They remain in the safe, sober environment,  learning to integrate the demands of everyday life while maintaining their  recovery as a priority. 

Phase III is an option for the women who have  completed the first six months and are prepared for less structure in their  lives but prefer to maintain residence in the Edna House community. For this  phase, there are two off-campus locations within a five-minute walk of The Edna  House. Program fees are kept to a bare minimum, to make them extremely  affordable while allowing the women the dignity of contributing to their own  care. 

The Edna House works with the Cleveland Police Department (CPD) and the Cleveland Patrolman’s Association, as well as the local court systems, to  engage strong community partners. For example, the CPD and Cleveland  Patrolman’s Association hold fundraising events, recently raising $2,000 to  help buy Christmas gifts for the residents’ children. Their support makes for a  safer community, less police involvement, and fewer arrests. Edna House  contributes in making the community safe not just as an innovative public  health alternative; it gives struggling women a chance to succeed by helping to  develop coherent and comprehensive social integration strategies.

For more information about the program or to schedule  a site visit to see the work that they do firsthand at Edna House, contact Executive  Director, Andrea DeBiasio at 216-281-7791.   Edna House (http://ednahouse.org/) or Edna House Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/TheEdnaHouse/) 

Kimberly Nath          Staff Writer
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