RE-EMERGING FROM DRUGS' GRIP

Monarch Houses Help Young Women Spurn Addiction Through Peer Mentoring And
Training

ROCKFORD — Joanna Bowersmith thought she was stronger than heroin. She felt
she could curb the drug habit whenever she wanted.

She was mistaken.

"I didn't feel like getting out of bed in the morning," Bowersmith said of
her yearlong addiction.

She dropped out of high school and was sent to Monarch House on Main
Street, a 4-year-old recovery home for adolescent girls. The home is owned
and operated by Rosecrance Health Network, a local nonprofit adolescent and
adult drug-treatment agency.

It was there that the 19-year-old Chicago-area woman transformed her life
from heroin addict to heroine and mentor to nearly a dozen young women who
call the restored, turn-of-the-century house home.

Bowersmith recently returned to Monarch House to help eight young women
settle into a new recovery home, Monarch House East.

The century-old, two-story house in Victorian Village offers the same
12-step drug-recovery program, life-skills training, 24-hour house
supervision and counseling found at the Main Street Monarch House.

Rosecrance bought Monarch House East, formerly the Victorian Bed and
Breakfast, this past spring for $320,000. After extensive renovation and
the addition of period furnishings, the young women moved into the 12-bed
facility, distinguished by its hardwood floors and rich wood trim, last month.

The homes are the only two of their kind in the region, drawing clients
through the court system as well as those seeking help on their own, said
Rosecrance President Phil Eaton. The residents come mostly from northern
Illinois; others are from as far as Pennsylvania, Georgia and Florida.

Back into society

Eaton described the Monarch homes as halfway houses for girls.

"It's the next step before transitioning them back into society," he said.

The goal is to provide a recovery-oriented environment with such 12-step
programs as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotic Anonymous.

"One of the things we often see in youths that need extended recovery-home
experience is, they lack motivation and self-direction," Eaton said. "The
Monarch House intentionally addresses and meets those needs."

Bowersmith just completed her freshman year at Rockford College, where she
is a double major in English and psychology. She described the house's
atmosphere as a sorority, "only without the drinking."

The all-for-one-and-one-for-all attitude the young women have for one
another exists when they are eating, working and socializing. It also
exists when there is a conflict. When this happens, there's a house meeting.

"If there is a problem, it doesn't matter where you are — in the shower, in
the bed, whatever — we all get together and talk about it," Bowersmith
said. "It's about peer accountability. That's what the house is run on."

Waiting list

Before the addition of Monarch House East, there was a waiting list of
young women eager to enter the Main Street facility's drug-free and
structured environment, Eaton said.

The cost is $119 aday for each resident, and government funding for 17 of
the two houses' combined 22 beds is available.

The average length of stay at a Monarch House is nine months.

Char Whittenburg, who has 10 years' experience in substance-abuse programs,
is the director of both houses. She wrote and designed a four-level
treatment program implemented at the houses: Intake, a two-week
orientation; general, which includes eight to 16 weeks of meeting with a
sponsor three times a week, maintaining at least a "C" average in school,
following house rules, chairing a house meeting and finding a job;
prementor, during which more privileges, such as more free time in the
community, are given; and mentor, during which one serves as a big sister
to the other women.

Under the supervision of Whittenburg and a 24-hour on-site Rosecrance staff
member, the young women learn such life skills as managing a budget,
maintaining a checking account, weekly grocery shopping, cooking and doing
household chores yard work in addition to attending school or working a
part-time job. Also, all the residents must undergo random drug tests,
usually given every two months.

"When they complete the program, we transition them back home to their
family, to college or independent living," Whittenburg said. "We try to
give them the tools to go back out there and live a sober and productive
lifestyle."

Bowersmith plans to do just that. For the first time in two years, she will
return to her home on Chicago's West Side for her first extended stay
before returning to Rockford College in the fall. She has no intentions on
falling back into the same routine and hanging around the same people who
led to her addiction.

Awaiting her at home is her mother, a summer job doing data-entry work and
a part-time job as a nanny.

"It's a reason to get out of bed in the morning," she said. "You're counted
on to be somewhere. It's about accountability and respect."