Where to donate
To support the Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center in Norwood you can donate or shop at the following locations:
7900 Tylersville Square Rd., West Chester
2250 Park Ave., Norwood
801 S. Eastgate Dr., Cincinnati
In-depth coverage
The is part two of an occasional series examining the impact of heroin and other drugs in Butler and Warren counties. The Middletown Journal/Hamilton JournalNews is committed to bring you in-depth coverage of the war on drugs in the area.
As drug abuse rises and waiting lists at local treatment centers grow longer, The Salvation Army in Norwood is taking those struggling with addiction from across southwest Ohio and giving them a place to stay and, hopefully, to recover.
The Salvation Army in Norwood will try to help roughly 1,300 men suffering with drug addictions or facing homelessness in the Greater Cincinnati region during the next year, and Major Nancy Beauchamp.
“We will invest in these men — spirtually, financially and emotionally — when no one else wants them,” she said.
The Salvation Army in Norwood us one of many organizations in the greater Cincinnati region working to combat residents’ growing abuse of heroin. Last month, a Hamilton JournalNews/Middletown Journal investigation found heroin-related arrests have grown seven times in the past five years in Butler County.
“I knew when I came here, there’s nowhere to go. People are dying on the streets of heroin (overdoses) here,” Beauchamp said.
Sojourner Recovery Services, in Hamilton, is the only residential treatment center in Butler County, and at most times, there is a waiting list for those seeking addiction treatment, said Darryle Short, director of staff development. He said those addicted to heroin, especially those who are pregnant, are moved ahead in the waiting list, past the alcoholics and crack cocaine users.
Former Middletown resident Willie, who asked the newspaper print only his first name, said he had hit the lowest point in his life last July.
Willie, 31, had just been released from the Hamilton County Jail after serving a 47-day sentence on theft charges.
While in jail, he spent 17 days picking up dead bodies and seeing the faces of people who had lost their battle with drug addiction after overdosing.
Inmates in a program at the Hamilton County Jail are charged with helping remove dead bodies and transferring them into body bags to take to the corner’s office.
For 17 days, whenever he saw the faces, he thought about how easily that dead body could have been him.
The experience rattled and broke him, Willie said.
“I had lost all hope. I felt like I didn’t have anything,” he said.
Released from jail, Willie was fighting to maintain rights to see his toddler-aged son and was battling a drug addiction with “all kinds of stuff,” he said.
A friend told his mother about the Salvation Army’s Adult Rehabilitation Center in Norwood, he said. The program’s six-month commitment gave him hesitation, he said, but he was at a point of “total desperation,” he said. Ultimately, Willie said he had nothing to lose and would give the center a try.
The Salvation Army in Norwood spends anywhere from $2,000 to $3,000 clothing, feeding, housing and training men in an effort to rehabilitate those who have been using drugs or sleeping on the streets, Beauchamp said.
The center’s operation relies on money the Salvation Army makes from selling donations, including at a thrift store in West Chester Twp.
The rehabilitation center added 50 more beds last year, making it a 150-bed facility to house those struggling with addictions.
The Norwood facility isn’t a drug treatment center, but Beauchamp and her staff use counseling, religious guidance, strict rules and a work training program to keep those who enter the facility clean.
“Do you want to change?” — It’s the first question Beauchamp said staff ask men when they walk in the door and ask to begin the free program.
The men who say they’re willing to change are immediately cut off, for at least two weeks, from the people in their lives. They can’t use their cell phones or leave the center to see friends. Those staying at the center are given a daily work assignment, such as cooking in the kitchen, sorting donations or cleaning the center.
Some have to be taught how to make a bed, while others have never held a job, she said.
Willie, who was a high school dropout, had to learn how to work sober.
“When I went in for a new job, I always went in high,” Willie said.
After a few months of work, Beauchamp and her staff, allow some of the rehabilitation residents to work in the Salvation Army store. After 30 days, residents are allowed to leave for a weekend, but they’re drug tested and breathalyzed upon returning to the Salvation Army. If they fail the tests, they’re ordered to pack their bags and leave immediately, Beauchamp said.
Kim Bowman, the Norwood store manager, helps the residents learn how to tag merchandise, answer customer questions and put up furniture displays.
“I try to invest in them and teach them job skills: how to dress appropriately, how to interact in public, just to be courteous to people. Some of it’s really basic,” Bowman said.
The goal of the center, Beauchamp said, isn’t just to rid the residents of their addiction.
“When you came in, you were a taker from society,” Beauchamp said of the people staying at the rehabilitation center. “When you go back out, we hope you have a relationship with God and a plan to give to society.”
To graduate from the program successfully, addicts must present Salvation Army staff with a plan to start a job, select a church and volunteer in the community. The center also allows residents to stay two months beyond their graduation date while they search for a new home, but they must pay rent during the second month.
Willie was able to land a job as a truck driver at the Salvation Army after he graduated in December, just six months after he left the Hamilton County Jail. He’s now working as a supervisor, managing the flow of donations, at the center. He’s also still working to keep some custody rights of his four-year-old son.
“I never thought I would have had the opportunity to be a supervisor, to be someone that guys could look up to,” Willie said.
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