Boulware Mission making most of 'National Recovery Month'

Christie Netherton, Messenger-Inquirer, Owensboro, Ky.
·2 min read

Sep. 23—September is National Recovery Month and Boulware Mission is working to make the community aware of how recovery can provide a new beginning and second chance for many who seek it.

Boulware Mission provides shelter services to displaced men as well as a long-term self-sufficiency program aimed at helping clients become independent, contributing members of the community.

The organization has been sharing the success stories of several of its clients throughout September in honor of National recovery Month.

Boulware Mission offers a 12-step recovery model with different educational classes and programs to help teach clients about lifestyle skills, financial security and other assets to becoming contributing members of the community.

Amy Sims Pride, CEO and executive director, said the mission works to grant individuals in recovery a second chance.

"Everybody deserves a second chance and that's what we try to do here at the Boulware Mission — we try to give them a second chance to help them recover from their addiction," she said. "We are trying to teach them that they can change their lives, that there's more to life. We want them to be able to function as individuals, hold down jobs and how to work through stress."

Sims Pride said the goal is to provide them with as many vital services in-house to teach them how to cope and build a support system within the community in hopes that once they have completed their time with Boulware Mission, they will be able to continue their work on their own.

Kathy Oakley-Taitt, Boulware Mission certified alcohol and drug counselor, said the process is all about meeting individuals where they are.

"We try to get them to realize and start the healing process of how addiction came in their lives in the first place. Doing that in a non-judgmental but firm way, I think goes a long way with the people that we work with," she said.

Oakley-Tiatt said the staff at Boulware Mission take their responsibility to their clients very personally, many having seen how substance use can affect their own loved ones.

The organization serves around 600 clients each year, according to Sims Pride, on any given normal year, assisting them in their recovery process and offering them "a home for new beginnings."

"I think we are looking at it as a turning point in their lives and that's how we want our clients to look at it," she said.

Christie Netherton, cnetherton@messenger-inquirer.com, 270-691-7360