By DOUG GRAVES

Ohio Correspondent

NORTH ROYALTON, Ohio — In northeastern Ohio there is a house on a small farm – the Woodrow Project recovery house – which serves as quarters for eight women who are in recovery from addiction to drugs, alcohol or other.

The five-bedroom North Royalton recovery house and farm in Cuyahoga County is under the direction of Executive Director Erin Helms. “There is no treatment here,” she said. “It feels like a home, as residents may attend their own counseling, psychiatry or medical appointments.”

The Woodrow Project is funded through grants from the Cuyahoga County ADAMHS board, Ohio Recovery Housing, Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services and the USDA for the farm part, among others.

“When we moved here a year ago the landscape was totally different and it was all grass,” Helms said. “These women have done amazing things here to the grounds, everything from tilling, to harvesting, water management and everything in between.”

The farm includes rooms where women sleep, eat meals, lead recovery meetings and socialize. Jacque Jones is the house manager who oversees the farm and greenhouse.

“Agriculture has been my life, all my life,” Jones said. “I’m a farmer’s daughter, so it’s a gift. It gives me the opportunity to teach and live here and be able to have my chickens and be able to help women in recovery.”

She knows a thing or two about planting and harvesting, and enjoys teaching the other women about farming, while they all learn from each other about recovery. “Every day there’s something that I can learn and I can apply,” said Brandi Gillen, who was addicted to alcohol for 23 years. “The experience here is beautiful.”

The fruits and vegetables they grow make their way to three different farmers’ markets in the area. “We’re starting to build a customer base,” Helms said. “From some of our crops we’ve been able to make jams, jellies and pies. It’s pretty exciting.”

She explained there are standards in place for the safety of all residents. “There’s a problem with unregulated sober living. We go through a certification process. Here the women are paid for their work on the farm as part of Woodrow Project’s job training program. Many job training programs are not designed for women in recovery.”

The women spend part of their day working in the farm or hoop house, but also spend time doing other things together on the farm. Gardening is one thing they all learn together.

“We plant it, pick it and then somebody cooks it,” Jones said. “They put the work in out there and we reap the rewards in here and share it.”

After going through treatment for her alcoholism, Debbie Sisson moved into the Woodrow Project recovery house and farm with a small social circle.

“I had pretty much demolished every single relationship that I had, so I came here with no relationships, and I certainly couldn’t do it on my own,” she explained. “The other women generally like me because they’ve seen who I have become. They saw me go from really nothing to build my life the way I’ve been building it.

“We all started from the bottom and we’re working up, and we’re doing it together.”

The atmosphere, Helms said, is conducive to recovery: “This home feels like a home, not an institution or a facility of some kind.”