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Freedom House unveils New Journey Recovery Housing
NATALIE PEACOCK
Legal News Reporter
Published: June 10, 2015
For someone struggling with addiction, sobriety is a hard-won achievement. Living in a safe and pleasant environment makes that achievement even more valuable.
Liss is one of two people living in New Journey Recovery Housing, a bungalow on the west side of Akron that opened March 16. She said she appreciates the lovely surroundings that make this house a home.
“It’s really nice here,” Liss said at the recent unveiling. “I lived in sober housing once before. All the furniture was worn out and dirty. The carpet was dirty, our television didn’t work and our furnace went out. So it’s refreshing to come to a place that says they have resources and they actually have them.”
Freedom House for Women celebrated its New Journey Recovery Housing on May 20. The nonprofit organization was started by founder and Executive Director Eva Hartwell in 2003. The mission and vision of Freedom House, Hartwell said, is to provide services to enhance, enrich and empower women to gain employment skills, sober living, education and economic security to improve quality of life to achieve self-sufficiency.
The property was donated four years ago by Stan and Stella Buchtel of Summit County. The home is set up to house three residents who have completed a certified Summit County treatment program.
Cuyler Costanzo, board president of Freedom House, said the new facility is an important asset for the nonprofit’s mission.
“This is a celebration,” he said. “Our mission at Freedom House is to decrease those barriers of addiction and homelessness and this house is one of those things so we can provide recovery housing and support services so the residents can continue on their journey of sobriety. It’s a struggle, it’s one day at a time but having this house here, this safe cozy home, it starts here.”
John M. Ellis also spoke.
“I’ll bet you that there’s going to be people driving by this property 30 years from now that slow down and take a look because they know all the success that they’ve experience in their lives started here,” said John M. Ellis, manager of clinical services at the Alcohol, Drug Addiction & Mental Health Services Board of Summit County. “To be part of that process is something that’s beyond profession. It’s just a neat thing to have been able to have crossed paths with somebody with Eva’s vision.”
Hartwell, who went through her own journey of recovery, said that the housing makes a huge difference.
“I’ve been exactly where these women are,” she said. “Except I did not have the same type of opportunity to go and stay in a house like this, with permanent housing where they can stay indefinitely.”
Stella Buchtel, who donated the house, also praised Hartwell’s vision.
“I’m just really glad we did it,” said Buchtel. “Look at what it’s done. Look at what Eva’s done. I would like to say that the reason that I donated this house to Freedom House was because of an article I read about Eva. I was very impressed.”
Many different groups of people came together to make the Recovery Housing a reality. Home Depot donated building materials for the home’s renovation. OMNOVA Foundation has continued to financially support Freedom House for Women.
Hartwell said that the community’s continued involvement with Freedom House will be key and that the nonprofit has specific additional goals for the New Recovery Housing.
“We would like to build an addition onto this house,” she said. “We have room to build back so we could help more people.”
She also emphasized the need for volunteers for clerical and maintenance work. Donations such as clothes, shoes and toiletries are also needed.
“The women could use shoes and clothes for if they go on job interviews,” she said. “Donations of clothes, shoes and toiletries -- all those things -- are helpful to the organization.”
While bigger nonprofit organizations have a vast support base, Hartwell stressed that smaller like agencies need a lot of support as well.
“I really think that people don’t know how hard it is to be a smaller nonprofit and to apply for grants and do all the different things we do to help people,” she said. “The bigger nonprofits have more funders and we have had the same eight funders for the same amount of years we have been open. Even though I’m the founder and the executive director, I still do direct services. I still work with the women. I wear a lot of hats. I would like to see more foundations and volunteers come in to help us and do more things to help our women. That would be awesome.”
For more information and ways to help Freedom House For Women and New Journey Recovery Housing visit www.fh4women.com.