Steps to Recovery Homes is working with its clients this holiday season to bring out their creativity through the recovery program’s Miracles Happen Resale Store.
Damien Browning, executive director at Steps to Recovery Homes, said the holidays are a tough time for those suffering from addiction, and this is compounded by the stress and isolation felt
by his clients during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Holidays are such a hard time for people with addiction issues,” Browning said. “I’m coming up on 15 years clean and the holidays are still tough for me.”
This got Browning and former client, now manager for Miracles Happen, Anji Dickson, thinking about what they could do to keep everyone busy and distracted during their recovery, and then they got it — clients could work in the resale store refurbishing furniture and creating presentations that fit together by refinishing and reupholstering old items.
“We can take something that would usually sell for $100 and end up selling it refurbished for $375,” Browning said. “And it goes right back into helping people. Plus, the clients get to express their creativity.”
Dickson took the idea of refurbishing items and took it a step further by repurposing mannequins and other retail wares into mannequin Christmas trees. Her attention to detail\ and color make her projects shine, and also help with her sobriety by providing a creative outlet.
“COVID hit, and we had 14 men in lockdown,” Dickson said. “The worst thing we can do, for us, is to be isolated. So we went down to the warehouse and we had all these guys come set up stations and we were pretty much like, Who can sand? Who can paint? Who can fix? — and we ended up making all this furniture.”
Dickson said after word got out about what they were doing, the public took to the store by storm, and every piece they made sold.“It just changes the game,” Dickson said. “All of a sudden …it opens that part of yourself that you’ve been shutting down … and then when the pieces sell, it’s even more exciting.
“It’s nice to find something that we’re good at, because we know what we’re really bad at … a lot of them had just gotten out of prison. Now, all of a sudden, not only have they made something, it made money. It’s one of the coolest things I’ve ever done.”
Cedar Gardner can be reached at 634-8551 or email cgardner@larsonnewspapers.com
