GROUP WANTS HOME FOR WOMEN TRYING TO KICK ALCOHOL, DRUGS

Cindy Black swigged her first drink of alcohol through the nipple of a baby
bottle.

But it was after she started serving herself in the seventh grade that the
addiction grabbed her life. Later, she added illicit drugs. The addictions
ended only after a stint at Southway Treatment Center and several months in
the Kanawha Valley Fellowship Home, now for men only.

Black and others strongly believe that women starting on the road to
recovery need a local halfway house of their own for support.

All they lack now is a beneficent angel to lead them over their largest
hurdle -- the donation of a home to house the women.

"This is one of the most cost-effective ways to treat addicts," Black said.

While a handful of other West Virginia cities offer a fellowship home for
women in recovery, there is not one in this area.

A 20-member board of directors, including representatives of area churches,
is working to establish one, which they hope will be somewhere in the East
End so the eight or so women who live there for about a year each can walk
or take the bus to work.

They plan to call it Rea of Hope, named for Betsy Fletcher Rea, a Putnam
County woman who helped others, including Black, through their recoveries.
She died in 1999 at age 68.

Steve Mason, director of the state Division of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse,
said a transition facility is sorely needed for women.

"One of the biggest problems is housing," Mason said. "If you can't meet
someone's basic needs, you can't expect them to recover."

Black grew up in a Logan County household headed by an alcoholic father and
a mother who protected him. Because she cried as a baby, her parents
drained a little whiskey into her baby bottle.

Occasionally, sometimes after stints in jail, her father stopped drinking.
He even took his children to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Black promised
herself she'd never slip into her father's condition.

But in the seventh grade, she began to drink. She got into fights, had car
wrecks and was suspended from school. Police officers in Chapmanville would
suggest she head on home when they found her drunk at night.

"Once I started drinking, I couldn't stop," Black said. "All my money went
to alcohol and drugs."

She worked at various odd jobs, got fired, and found another. Clerking at a
convenience store was most difficult. Occasionally, customers would tempt
her with drugs.

In 1984 at age 21, Black sought treatment for the first time.

"I couldn't get high anymore," she said. "I got terrified and couldn't get
thoughts from my head to my mouth. I called Huntington AA. After several
weeks, I knew I couldn't stay sober on my own."

It was about four years later that she headed to Southway and then the
fellowship home.

"For me, the first time living in a consistent, safe, structured
environment allowed me to flourish," she said.

Since then, Black has graduated from college.

This past year alone, she married, earned a master's degree in social work,
bought a house and had a baby -- all the while working to open a fellowship
home for women.

Joe Deegan, president of the Rea of Hope board of directors, said the home
would be open to any woman who needs it, regardless of background or
financial status. Access to such treatment is dwindling as insurers cut
back reimbursements. A stigma continues to exist for female addicts
especially, he said.

"The most vulnerable are not given a chance to turn their lives around,"
Deegan said. "These programs need to be in every county."

Black, meanwhile, said it's her dream to allow other women the chances she
received.

Had she not lived in the fellowship home, she said, "I would be dead. I
know I would be."

For more information on the Rea of Hope fellowship home for women, call
Denise Burgess at the Family Resource Center, 388-2545.