It’s a new life and a new story for Jheri and Christine. The two mothers are actively rebuilding and creating new habits and new routines, surrounded by support and sisterhood. After years of coping with addiction and homelessness, the “sober sisters,” as they call themselves, are in different phases of their individual journeys of life-long recovery. But they aren’t where they were before, and for the first time in their lives, they say they feel like they’re in a safe place.
That place is called the Breakthru House. For nearly 60 years, the DeKalb County-based intensive recovery residence has provided gender specific comprehensive treatment to women who have struggled with disorders of substance abuse, mental illness, poverty, homelessness and trauma. The Breakthru House offers structured holistic programs that focus on the eight dimensions of wellness, which include physical, emotional and spiritual wellness. It is one of a few treatment facilities in Georgia that allows mothers to live on campus with their children while receiving treatment.
“We know that addiction is not an isolated disease,” explained BreNita Jackson, who serves as the executive director of Breakthru House. “It affects everyone that’s attached to that person, especially children, because what happens, children have seen and felt things prematurely that they should not have. So, when we have mom and child, then we’re allowed to intervene into that child’s life very early in the process.”
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