"I remember walking into the doors of the Gateway Treatment Center on March 26, 1996, after twenty years of active addiction. I was court-ordered to go to treatment and my daughter had become a ward of the state. On March 26, 2019, I had 23 years of being clean from all drugs."

This is the story of a staff member of Healthy House for Women, established in 2015. Their staff knows what it takes to turn a life around. They continued, saying, "I can totally relate to the cultural, racial, economic and gender barriers that the women we serve have to address and overcome in order to become responsible productive members of our community."

Healthy House shares their experience of addiction, healing and growth with women who are at risk of homelessness due to unaddressed issues, such as substance use disorder, mental health diagnosis, and unemployment, lack of education and community supports.

Healthy House began by drawing on community-based values, traditions, customs, and working with knowledgeable people from the community to plan, implement, and evaluate prevention activities. Their program promotes academic, occupational, emotional and spiritual competence, resulting in individual progress toward personal fulfillment and positive contribution to the community. Healthy House creates a judgment-free environment based on an inclusive, strength-based model, with the vision: All women safe, sober, self-sufficient. Their mission is to provide a safe, sober, structured residential environment for women in recovery from co-occurring illness.

Healthy House accommodates eight women at a time, ages 18 to 60, in its fully-furnished house, including bedding, sheets and towels. Some of the residents have temporarily lost custody of their minor children, so Healthy House collaborates with appropriate agencies to arrange supervised visitations. This community resource works to protect and empower vulnerable women in our community.

Note To Our Donor Advisors:
You’ve already shown your love for this community by creating an Advised Fund at the Kalamazoo Community Foundation. Through Partners in Philanthropy, we offer you an opportunity to demonstrate that love again by supporting one or more of the projects highlighted with a grant suggestion from the fund you established. The programs shared in this publication are among the recent funding requests we’ve received from local nonprofit organizations.

To support this program, download the grant suggestion form here and select Healthy House For Women or make a grant suggestion using Kalamazoo Connect at https://connect.kalfound.org.