Gardening at Breakthru House

Wow! What a garden!!! 

Breakthru House utilizes a garden for our client for both therapeutic reasons as well as to save money on nutritious foods!

We'd like to extend a HUGE thank you to everyone who helped us with our garden:

Shanna Wood - for working weekly with the clients to research, plan, and prepare the garden plots - THANK YOU!!!

To our nurse volunteer, JoAnn Akers and The Pilot Club, along with Bob and Martha Forrest - for donating garden supplies - THANK YOU!!

To Kim Little, St. James UMC, and their FABULOUS volunteers for teaching us about composting and organic gardening, donating supplies, full-size plants and tools, and for a lot of hard work - THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!

The garden is an exciting, therapeutic, and tangibly useful project for our clients! Check out this zucchini - the clients were amazed!!

The clients are reporting some squirrel issues - they are eating our tomatoes!!! Anyone have great organic remedies for keeping squirrels and other critters away?? Leave us a comment!!

by Melanie Storrusten, LCSW, Clinical Coordinator

Board Members Admitted to Breakthru House!

by Melanie Storrusten, LCSW, Clinical Coordinator

Last Wednesday, Breakthru House staff held a board member training event where board members were "admitted" to treatment!

Board members arrived at our office, 

and had their wallets, cell phones, and keys confiscated by Kaysha Corniffe, our Administrative Coordinator and Jessica Jenkins, one of our Counselors.

Then they were drug screened,

and breathalyzed.

They all passed, so they were admitted to treatment and proceeded to our group room where they reviewed consents with our Resident Manager, Gail Whitton.

Their bags were searched, and any contraband items were confiscated. No cleansers, lotions, perfumes, or items containing alcohol allowed!

Board members were then paired up with clients, and received a tour of the residences, highlighting first aid and emergency procedures, and an overview of program rules and schedules.

We then had a working dinner - our Clinical Coordinator, Melanie Storrusten reviewed various assessment tools used in our Assessment Phase to assist us in providing individualized treatment to each client. Then Kate Boyer, our Executive Director, joined in to lead a very information Question and Answer session. The board members' passion was evident - they had lots of questions!

After the Q&A, Sarah Postich, our newest staff member and Lead Counselor, joined Jessica in co-leading a group in which board members and clients could share about the experiences of coming to treatment. 

Each board member left with a Big Book, AA's 12-Step book, which is one part of the Recovery Kit that incoming clients receive.

Thank you so much to our board for attending and learning more about addiction and the excellent therapeutic services that we provide at Breakthru House! We hope that you all enjoyed the evening and learned a lot! Leave us a comment to share about your experience!

ELO - Mr. Blue Skies, a great client theme song!

...

Runnin' down the avenue
See how the sun shines brightly in the city
On the streets where once was pity
Mister blue sky is living here today hey, hey

Mister blue sky please tell us why
You had to hide away for so long
Where did we go wrong?

...

Pearl Jam - Latest Client Theme Song!

Here's our latest client theme song - Rock out to Pearl Jam's Given to Fly:

And he still gives his love, he just gives it away
The love he receives is the love that is saved
And sometimes is seen a strange spot in the sky
A human being that was given to fly

Alumni Picnic

On May 14th, Breakthru House held its annual Alumni Picnic. Clients, board members, volunteers, and alumni gathered on our campus to celebrate Breakthru House and how their lives have been impacted through it.

 The shared time began with a celebration moment for the life of Laura Z., a Breakthru House board member and long-time volunteer who was instrumental in establishing our weekly Big Book volunteer group. 

There was good food, fellowship, volleyball, and even some hula hooping! At Breakthru House, we are so grateful for all of our supporters, but especially for our Alumni who remain actively connected with Breakthru House, and can provide a living, breathing example to our current clients of a changed life that is possible through treatment at Breakthru.

Thank you volunteers, supporters, and Alumni!!

*Note - no clients are pictured above. All volunteers, alumni, and board members provided consent for their pictures to be posted. If you are pictured above and would like to removed from the blog, please contact Breakthru's resident blogger and Clinical Coordinator, Melanie Storrusten.

Thank you!! The benefits of staying connected to Breakthru House.

by Melanie Storrusten, LCSW, Clinical Coordinator

Recently we posted a blog featuring some of our clients Healthy Goals for our Spring Challenge. One of our clients listed a goal to train for and participate in a triathlon. This directly ties in to treatment at Breakthru in a couple of ways: Exercise is an example of the healthy coping skills that our clients need to develop to help them deal with their discomfort by behaviors other than using drugs and alcohol. Exercise boosts natural "feelgood" chemicals in the body to combat depression. Exercise leads to healthy bodies, which increases self-worth. I'm sure that you can intuitively list many more benefits of exercise and how it might be especially beneficial for women in early recovery.

In order for our client to meet her goal of actually participating in a triathlon, she needed access to a pool to train in, bike repairs, an entry fee, and some other obstacles that were financially out of her grasp. That's where our awesome Breakthru House community of supporters came into play and overwhelmingly responded to the call. Our client is now able to actively train and will be competing in her triathlon soon, and in doing so, inspires other clients to work to meet their goals as well.

Client Art by D.

I hope that you can see the impact that donors and volunteers can make in the lives of our clients - in HUGE and meaningful ways. We are so glad that you care enough to stay connected and responsive to Breakthru's needs. And we are super stoked to get to pass along the great things happening as a result of your generosity. Our blog and website are some ways to stay connected - we also have a newsletter. Check out the latest edition here, and sign up to be on our mailing list here.

Client Theme Song - I'm Not Your Average Girl, India Arie

I'm not the average girl from your video
And I ain't built like a super model
But I learned to love myself unconditionally
Because I am a queen 

...

When I look in the mirror
and the only one there is me
Every freckle on my face is where it's supposed to be
And I know my creator didn't make
no mistakes on me