Expanding to Overcome Addiction: The Healing Place of Huntington Spreads Hope and Recovery

By Matt Boggs

Fear. That is what followed the murders of four teens on prom night in May 2005 at a house located in the 1400 block of Charleston Avenue in Huntington. Authorities believed the senseless murders were tied to drug-related activities.

An article written in The Herald-Dispatch on May 21, 2008 stated, “The shootings have come to symbolize the Tri-State’s struggle to curb drug addiction and brutal violence often associated with it. It sheltered the belief that small communities were immune from the most violent crimes and shed light on a lucrative drug pipeline controlled by crack cocaine traffickers from large metropolitan areas.”

The prom night tragedy motivated local residents to take action and begin looking for solutions to the problem. Bob Hansen, executive director of The Healing Place of Huntington and former CEO of Prestera Center, says, “The murders were really a wake-up call that we needed to do more. We needed solutions.”

Looking for Answers
Following a local drug prevention summit that was hosted by the Cabell County Substance Abuse Prevention Partnership, many felt that a local recovery facility would be a great start in the efforts to reduce the demand of drugs. Wayne County Delegate Don Perdue reflected on that meeting.

“Following the meeting, one of my council members brought up The Healing Place, located in her hometown of Louisville, KY,” he says. “I told her that we needed to go and visit the facility.”

A committee was formed following the meeting. Comprised of community members, public officials and local business owners, its main objective was simple and to the point: Find a treatment center whose model could easily be replicated, and bring it to Huntington. Hansen, Perdue and the rest of the committee that was formed rented a van and drove to Louisville to see The Healing Place, which is a medication-free program that uses a peer-driven social model that incorporates the 12-step Alcoholics Anonymous program into its long-term process. What was cemented in the committee’s memory on that visit was the success rate: 65 percent of graduates went on to one year of sobriety, and it climbed to 85 percent after two years.

That is five times greater than the national average.

A member of that early committee—and current-day board member—was Debby Hibbard.

“I was so impressed with how the program worked and the attitudes of the clients,” says Hibbard. “I was in awe. I knew that if we could bring this to Huntington, we could save lives. We would need a lot of support, but we had to try.”

It took just one more meeting of this committee to finalize the mission. They would bring The Healing Place model to Huntington. The Healing Place of Louisville chipped in by providing a replication team to ensure the integrity of the model stayed intact. Raising the necessary funds for start-up and operations, however, would be Huntington’s responsibility.

Over the next year, working with community advocates and legislators became regular occurrences. Faith became a common thread as the committee searched for funding to get the fledgling idea of bringing long-term recovery to town.

Perdue learned that the West Virginia Attorney General’s Office was set to receive a large settlement from drug company litigation in which funds were to be used in treating substance abuse. This was great news for Perdue.

“I immediately began working with other legislators through a tedious process to inquire about an allocation of the funding,” he says. “It became a cumbersome task, but I knew it was desperately needed.”

After lengthy debate, then-State Senator Evan Jenkins of Cabell County and Perdue convinced then-Governor Joe Manchin’s office to allocate the money through a grant process. Soon thereafter, The Healing Place of Huntington concept was awarded a sizable grant to begin. The concept was about to become a reality.

Building Begins
What used to be called Lincoln Elementary School, situated at 2425 9th Avenue, became the chosen location. Closed for years, it had housed a flooring store briefly, yet was a highly visible location in a former blue-collar east end neighborhood that had become known as drug infested. Based on Healing Place models throughout Kentucky, these neighborhoods were appropriate for such facilities.

Valerie Roach was a member of that first committee and serves on the board of directors today. She vividly remembers the first day of renovations. “I didn’t sleep the night before in anticipation of the initial renovations. It could not happen quickly enough,” she says.

Over the next year, the building began to take shape into a place where men would begin a life-changing transformation of their own.

The doors of The Healing Place of Huntington opened in January 2011, staffed by four men who were graduates of The Healing Place in Louisville. As part of the replication team, they would become peer mentors who facilitated classes, provided peer-to-peer counseling and, ultimately, provided the hope recovery brings to others. One of the first to arrive was B.J. Litz.

“This model saved my life,” Litz says of the personal commitment necessary to start anew in Huntington. “To see the new clients come through the door, as I once did, gave me so much gratitude. I wanted to transmit the information that was so freely given to me.”

Paul McDanald was among the group of 10 men who were initially served. “I had just completed a 28-day inpatient facility and knew I needed structure,” he says. “I didn’t want to do what I had always done before—lay on my mother’s couch. I had heard about The Healing Place of Louisville and their success. I heard one was opening in Huntington.”

The vision had always been to serve 100 men, and the board of directors was committed to see that happen. Grants were written, fundraising events were completed and support was garnered. The path for success in any nonprofit organization can be tough, especially for a program that is provided at no cost to the participant.

The Healing Place model provides its services for approximately $25 per man per day. When you consider that short-term clinical recovery facilities can cost approximately $250 per day­ and sitting in jail costs taxpayers $48 per person per day, the benefit of the Healing Place model starts to come into clear focus.

Growing Progress
Growth. It is the goal of every man that enters the door. Yet in the same breath, it is also what The Healing Place of Huntington itself has experienced in just over four years of operation. Currently, The Healing Place of Huntington serves 70 men with renovations almost completed to raise the program’s capacity to right at 100 men. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled to celebrate that achievement at 12 p.m. on Thursday, April 9.

The expansion of beds could not come at a more appropriate time. The City of Huntington has witnessed a deadly epidemic of addiction in the last few months, resulting in 20 overdose deaths just since the beginning of January 2015. Earlier this year, Huntington Mayor Steve Williams created the Office of Drug Control Policy and named former Police Chief Jim Johnson to lead the office. Johnson knows the importance of recovery.

“Having available recovery services like The Healing Place of Huntington is extremely important,” Johnson says. “To have an organization with so much success is imperative as we do our best to stem the tide from the epidemic of addiction.”

Williams has made treating the epidemic one of his utmost priorities as mayor and expounded by saying, “First and foremost, The Healing Place provides hope. Hope is given to those who are fighting addiction, and hope is delivered to their families. Addiction can become a temporary setback, not a life sentence.”

The success of The Healing Place of Huntington is evident across the entire State of West Virginia. The Justice Reinvestment Act recently made funding available for The Healing Place of Huntington to open facilities of its own in both Mercer and Kanawha counties. Just four years into its life, The Healing Place of Huntington gets to provide the replication team for these two new facilities, much like The Healing Place of Louisville did for Huntington. The Bluefield facility will be called Four Seasons Recovery Center and will serve 60 men. The Charleston facility has yet to be named and will serve 100 women. The Healing Place of Huntington will also be providing replication assistance in the Northern Panhandle for a similar 60-bed men’s facility.

Hope for Others
Perhaps the only setbacks for facilities like The Healing Place of Huntington are in securing funding and reducing the stigma associated with being in recovery. Adequate housing and employment remain a large barrier for those who have been involved with the criminal justice system. Historically, the typical addict has been associated with the graphic depictions found through various Internet sites, but that remains a small percentage of the overall population. Often it is your neighbor, colleague, friend or family member, unknown to many.

The Healing Place of Huntington is committed to reducing that stigma in Huntington and throughout the state.

“The Healing Place allows every community in our state to realize that the stigma of addiction can be conquered. The community can stand together and exclaim that addiction can be defeated,” says Williams.

Indeed it can.

The Healing Place of Huntington’s success thus far has been achieved through generous corporate and individual donors, state support and foundations. Future success will only be realized with additional support in other communities.

McDanald, one of the first graduates, summed up his experience by saying, “I learned how to do everything all over again. I learned how to live without being under the influence.”

That is the essence of what The Healing Place of Huntington is all about. Change.

Photography by Greg Perry

About the Author
Matt Boggs, director of development at The Healing Place of Huntington, is a Peer Recovery Support Specialist through the State of West Virginia. Boggs has served in various roles, including project coordinator of a statewide peer recovery training class. He serves on numerous committees throughout the community aimed at promoting prevention, treatment and recovery options for individuals throughout the state.

Boggs is a person in long-term recovery from substance use disorders and a graduate of The Healing Place of Huntington. A graduate of Marshall University, Boggs plans to begin a master’s degree program in the fall.

To find out more about The Healing Place of Huntington, please visit www.thehealingplaceofhuntington.org or call (304) 523-4673, Ext. 312.