Optimists learn of Next Door program
♦ The nonprofit helps create “new cycles” for women leaving incarceration.
Because she’s been there, she knows where they’re coming from. She also knows what they can potentially do for their community if given the chance.
Amy Young — who recently celebrated 16 years of being clean and sober — spoke to the Rome Noon Optimist Club on Monday about the importance of believing in the transformation of lives.
“I’m very thankful I get the opportunity to not only be able to tell you about the Livingproof and Next Door programs, but that we all get to see these women grow and succeed and go out and feed back into our community and keep giving back,” said Young, a Livingproof Recovery program director who is now heading up the Next Door nonprofit.
It was formed last May to provide women leaving incarceration with safe, dignified transitional homes as they work on reinventing themselves with peer support.
Next Door has so far housed 10 women from Rome and Floyd County who otherwise would either be reoffending to return to the “comfort” of jail, would be homeless, or would be continuing to barely function in a dysfunctional, addiction-filled environment.
And because Next Door is part of Livingproof Recovery, the women enjoy all the benefits of all LPR, which includes a variety of support groups, employment services, legal services, fitness programs and fun community outings.
Young said she communicates with 40 or 50 women per week who need some form of services. She stressed the importance of treating each person with the respect and dignity they deserve — no matter their background or particular circumstance.
“Not everybody gets into addiction the same way and not everybody’s going to get well the same way,” she said. “We all experience different traumas or different environments or causes that activated the substance usage. Some people get better with 12-step meetings, some people get better with sponsors, some people get better working out and others get better through art therapy. We want to celebrate that and meet people where they are and get them where they need to be.”
The most exciting aspect of seeing these women gain back custody of their children, start earning their own wages again and getting their own permanent homes is knowing that at some point they, too, will be able to follow the Optimist creed of “service above self.”
“We’re asking the community to support the program because the program supports the women and when the women get back into the community, they will, in turn, support the community,” she said. “So instead of living in the cycle of addiction and incarceration, they’re coming out and living productive cycles in the community where they’re giving back.”
After the Optimists heard Young say funding is the biggest challenge for the Next Door program since it is a separate nonprofit from Livingproof, members took up a cash collection at the end of the meeting that was turned into a check for Young to apply to Next Door.
Young thanked them for their generosity. “The program is thriving, but we need to establish longevity and be able to procure a future for it,” she explained. “What I really want you guys to take away from this is knowing that there’s another side to our community that most of us don’t see. That other side really needs for people to get into the mess and help lift people out of it and that’s what we’re doing.”