HAMPTON — Eighteen months after Magnolia House, the primary sober home for ladies in Rockingham County, was based, Summerwood Home, the county’s first sober males’s residence, has opened its doorways.
For these battling substance misuse points, the amenities promise to supply a secure, structured place to foster long-term restoration. Most of all, they provide hope and environments the place substance abuse victims can develop vanity, in the event that they’re keen to do the work it takes to construct again their lives with out dependency on medication or alcohol.
Opened in October 2020, Magnolia House was the dream of Jules Johnson, a then 43-year-old profitable gross sales government who herself struggled with substance misuse. After returning to the East Coast from California, Johnson turned that dream into actuality. She purchased the home, left her job, did the analysis, financed the start-up prices and runs the sober home herself.
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Sober residing amenities are the third part of restoration from addictions, after detox and rehab. They’re the a part of the method that places coping expertise to work and reveals the addicted they will dwell life with out relying on medication or alcohol. In line with many, it’s the toughest part.
In line with Johnson and others concerned within the cycle of substance abuse, most individuals who have not struggled with substances don’t perceive the pull habit has on its victims, or the hurdles to sobriety that buddies, household and on a regular basis life locations within the path of these attempting to remain clear. That’s why a separate substance-free setting like Magnolia Home and now Summerwood Home – when obtainable – may also help the motivated succeed.
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Staying sober collectively
About 40 girls have been by means of the doorways of Magnolia Home, in line with Johnson. Although not everyone seems to be successful story, about 80% of the ladies concerned have remained sober for 10 months, Johnson mentioned.
However one sober residing home based by a single particular person isn’t sufficient to accommodate the 1000’s coping with the epidemic of substance misuse in New Hampshire. If it “takes a village to lift a baby,” it’s taking the partnership of quite a few Seacoast organizations and people to foster a path to sobriety for the addicted.
In line with Mark Lefebvre, director of group engagement for Pinetree Institute, Summerwood Home is the results of efforts involving many, together with these with the Seacoast Coordinated Response to Substance Use Dysfunction, the Pinetree Institute, and the Housing Job Power of the Seacoast Coordinated Response, all of whom recognized the necessity for a males’s sober home on the Seacoast and labored to fill it.
Though these organizations had been initially primarily based out of Portsmouth, Lefebvre credit Hampton Selectman Rusty Bridle and Hampton Chamber President John Nyhan for being instrumental in bringing them to Hampton.
Figuring out a necessity, nevertheless, doesn’t routinely translate to filling it. In line with Lefebvre, there was a modicum of serendipity that introduced Summerwood Home to fruition, and really shortly.
“An ideal storm of alternative offered itself in December at Blue Harbor Espresso in the future,” Lefebvre mentioned. “Al Fleury approached me and supplied his assist, and a donor got here ahead.”
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In line with Lefebvre, Fleury, the owner of a number of businesses in Portsmouth and Hampton, together with The Inexperienced Room, Wally’s Pub, Luchos and the Surf Home Resort, stepped as much as the plate with a pivotal provide: The usage of one in every of his properties because the sober home.
“And an nameless donor, who’d misplaced a member of the family to substance abuse, supplied to fund the start-up prices,” Lefebvre mentioned.
Understanding of Magnolia Home, Lefebvre reached out to Johnson to see if she’d tackle operating a second.
“I’ve seen sober homes everywhere in the nation,” Lefebvre mentioned. “Magnolia Home is the warmest, cleanest most welcoming home by far. Jules (Johnson) works to re-establish vanity.”
With a property, startup funding and an individual to run the power, Lefebrve mentioned, by the top of January there was a street map for the brand new 12-person males’s residential sober residing facility in Hampton.
Opening Summerwood Home
Johnson went to work, shopping for furnishings and making the beauty enhancements to the three,000-square-foot home that made it a welcoming and interesting place for males looking for to develop the wholesome habits for productive lives with out medication or alcohol. By March males had been transferring in.
“The decor could be very masculine,” mentioned Johnson of Summerwood Home. “The lads who dwell right here have full-size beds, not twin or bunk beds stacked up. We acquired approval for a $5,000 grant from Seacoast Public Well being Community for a backyard venture at Summerwood Home. We’ll flip the yard right into a retreat to help constructive psychological well being, stress discount and vanity enchancment.”
Magnolia and Summerwood homes are blocks aside, she mentioned, permitting Johnson to spend time at each all through the day. The amenities are licensed by New Hampshire NARR, a department of the National Alliance for Recovery Residences, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and restoration group group.
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Like Magnolia Home, Summerwood Home is a really structured setting. Each particular person accepted into this system indicators a contract. Included within the guidelines is a ten p.m. curfew and no private vehicles for the primary 30 days. Everybody rises in time to make a 7 a.m. in-person restoration help assembly held close by. They make their very own every day meals, hold the place clear, and have a weekly meal and home assembly collectively.
“And inside 30 days everybody has to have a minimal 32-hour-a-week job,” she mentioned. “That’s to make them self-sufficient and in a position to pay their very own manner.”
Johnson accepted three candidates for Summerwood Home thus far, she mentioned, and is reviewing different functions.
“However we don’t fill beds simply to fill beds,” Johnson mentioned. “We wish motivated people. When that occurs, once they’re all motivated, all of them rise collectively. It’s magical.”
Hampton group has been ‘wonderful’
In line with Johnson, there’s one other important participant on this story that may’t be overstated.
“The group of Hampton has simply been wonderful,” Johnson mentioned. “I can get these individuals jobs due to the group help now we have. That’s enormous.”
Residents of Magnolia and Summerwood Home typically put on hoodies with the properties’ logos, she mentioned, and the response to these sporting the hoodies has been nothing in need of welcoming. Lately, when Johnson was purchasing in an area retailer sporting her Magnolia Home attire an ideal stranger walked as much as her complimenting her on this system, she mentioned.
“If we’d like one thing, the group has by no means did not ship it and that’s wonderful,” Johnson mentioned. “I’ve by no means had a damaging remark. Nobody’s ever complained to me. By no means. It’s simply been nice.”
