Pennington Gap, va. -This Saturday evening in June, people in the countryside gathered at the historic Lee Theatre to celebrate the founding of the high ground women’s recovery residence.
The author Barbara Kingsolver has opened a royalty -roy facility in a novel that won the Pulitzer Award in January.Devil copper head“Appalachia’s conspiracy, centered on the opioid crisis of the opioid crisis, provides a place where people can stay while living without drugs, and Kingsolver has asked women to live with her on stage.
Kingsolver, who grew up in Appal’s teeth, suggested that women shared with the most proud of what women obtained from the first week. But she learned that they wanted to boast each other.
Supporters say Taller After leaving the prison, prison or treatment center, it provides stability and re -entrance point. It provides a variety of services and support in areas that are destroyed by addiction to painkillers and other types of opioids. Most fundamentally, it is a true house with a one and two bedrooms, a common kitchen and oysters. Residents say they have found affirmation from a woman cohort, who understands how addiction can blame people and organize them from the family and the community.
Resident Ronda Morgan said her family was always in her corner. But she said, “I have to spend time with me while sentenced to imprisonment for drug possession.” She is ready to recover. Her daughter, a nurse, told her about the higher land, the first facility of the rural Lee County countryside. Morgan has learned that he can live there for up to two years to get her foothold with addiction for more than 30 years.
What she did not expect was her relatives with her colleagues and high school staff.
Parsell (35), one of the first residents of Higher Ground, said she had helped her to find employment and register in the community colleges.
Parsell said it was supported by the staff and Kingsolver without judgment. “I find out together,” she said.
Traditional treatment facilities are usually operated under highly structured medical supervision. Marvin Ventrell, CEO of the nation’s addiction therapy providers, said, as with the highlands, the recovery house provides a more comfortable environment, saying, “It helps to move residents to independent, functional and independent humans.”
“Recovery occurs in the community.” However, re -entry should be delicately approached. “If addiction occurs with humans, it also occurs within the family social structure.” When a person in early recovery comes back to a family who is not prepared, the person’s success is “badly reduced.”
In the case of Kingsolver, the opioid crisis was the focus of her hopes that she was a “great Appala teeth novel.” The infectious disease said, “I changed the texture of this place too much.”
The pharmaceutical company targets Central Appalachia to sell what to sell False claims were insisted that it was powerful in addiction. Prescription opioids. Kingsolver said, “I returned my net about all the extraction industry here, took out good things and left a mess.”
“The way I put in the way I came to harvest our pain when they didn’t have anything left,” she said.
In a study of “DEMON COPPEREAD”, she was immersed in the stories of those who explored addiction and those who took care of them and advocated.
The novel sold more than 3 million copies and made much more money than the previous work. Kingsolver decided to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to solve the overwhelming crisis that she raised. And she returned to full time in 2004.
Again, she started listening. She believes that women’s recovery houses are the wisest investments based on extensive expertise.
Joie Cantrell is a public health nurse. Reduction of damage The Virginia Ministry of Health supports policies and practices to suppress the negative impact of drug use and serves as chairman of the board of directors. She has long recognized the need for such a house.
Cantrell said, “This was a missing part. They have returned to the same old pattern. ” She said the area needs a safe and stable environment for women to re -correct.
By August, the house reached the capacity of seven women. Kingsolver said, “It is very important because there is no public transportation in this area.”
Pacel has long been suffering from social anxiety. The drug was her escape. Here, her colleagues accepted her. They provided support that she never experienced.
“Every two seconds said, ‘Sira is here!’ She said,” Thank you very much. “If there is a problem in the house,” One of the seven of us has a solution. “
Four residents are hired outside the house, one is registered in community colleges, and one is completing GEDs with plan to continue education, and everyone is a volunteer in the community. Craft classes are provided. The family visit.
“They are living a living life,” said Subrenda Huff, who was filling when LIZ Brooks had a maternity leave.
Morgan said she had achieved more results in higher places in a few years. This includes application for ID cards, budget classes and pursuing permanent housing. This includes sharing maintenance in the House of Representatives.
It was Kingsolver’s vision. But she said, “There is something I didn’t expect here. The community accepted it with a lovely arm. People thought they would say, ‘I don’t want this in the backyard.’
Most furniture has been donated. Kingsolver’s one -quarter social media followers played an important role. “But it’s not a book club in Switzerland or California, but people of Pennington Gap,” she said. The church groups donated, “I insisted on quilt, bed lamps, and hanging on the walls.”
Before the facility was opened, local people pulled weeds, knocked out old fences, and uploaded new things. Kingsolver said that the well of support was “endless. It was deep, lovely and amazing.”
CANTRELL said that the higher side, with only one paid employee, estimates $ 120,000 annually. Residents are charged $ 50 a week. Ventrel said that the fee for other recovery points is very different, but $ 2,500 a month is approximately average.
Cantrell said, “We want to focus on paying money and paying fines that can be caused by saving money and being accused of past charges.
The higher the ground does not receive the federal or state funds. The donation keeps pouring out. And Kingsolver recently bought a building next door with a plan to open a used store shop.
Supporters want to open a higher ground house elsewhere in this area.
Kingsolver said that these women are “not just drinking, but their own belief.”
