A Chance to Change celebrates new larger building
A Chance to Change, a nonprofit dedicated to helping people affected by addiction, is continuing its mission in a new 10,000-squarefoot location.
The agency held an open house this month at 2113 W Britton Road.
“It was incredible,” said Candice Hillenbrand, senior director of development and community engagement. “We had a big crowd.”
Interest in A Chance to Change doesn’t appear to be a problem. Hillenbrand said the annual benefit dinner regularly sells out at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum. Last year $358,000 was raised, and Hillenbrand said the agency needs all of it to supplement its $1.6 million annual budget.
This year’s Celebration of Recovery fundraising dinner is set for March 29. Hillenbrand said the group’s work is sorely needed, and almost everyone knows somebody with an addiction problem.
In late October the agency moved from its old location on Classen Circle, which it had outgrown.
Expansion has been the keyword for A Chance to Change since its founding in the late 1970s.
“We started in 1979 with two volunteers,” Hillenbrand said. “Today we have 23 full-time staff.”
‘Hope feeds recovery’
People they have helped include a young mother who had been involved with gambling from the age of 7. That addiction continued when she grew up and got married. Her husband had no idea she was spending household funds at a casino.
“After she lost the last of the money, she rode down an escalator and felt like she was sinking under the earth,” Hillenbrand said.
A Chance to Change helped the woman get to the root cause of the addiction and turn her life around.
For its gambling addiction treatment, the state helps with a grant from the state Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services. Other programs are funded through insurance or the agency’s fundraising efforts. Also helping is the United Way.
A Chance to Change reaches 20 counties and has thousands of encounters in referrals, counseling, group therapy sessions and other programs. Those getting help range from children to senior citizens.
“I can look out my window and see a car drive slowly in the parking lot many times before the driver decides to park, and then someone will wait 20 minutes until they get out and come in,” Hillenbrand said.
“It takes a lot of courage to not only admit you have a problem but to also realize you need help with it.”
It all starts with hope, said Steve Young, A Chance to Change board chairman.
“Hope feeds recovery,” he said. “It is the fuel people need to keep doing the work to get better.”
The work of Young and other board members doesn’t go unnoticed by Hillenbrand and other staff members.
“We have a great board,” she said. “When they tell the stories of people helped, they have tears in their eyes.”
For more information, go to achancetochange. org or call 840-9000.