PENNINGTON GAP, Va. \u2014 On a Saturday evening in June, people of this rural region gathered at the historic Lee Theatre to celebrate the founding of Higher Ground Women\u2019s Recovery Residence. <\/p>\n
Author Barbara Kingsolver opened the facility in January with royalties from her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, \u201cDemon Copperhead<\/a>,\u201d whose plot revolves around Appalachia\u2019s opioid crisis. The home offers a supportive place for people to stay while learning to live without drugs. Kingsolver had asked the women now living there to join her on stage.<\/p>\n Kingsolver, who grew up in Appalachia, suggested the women share with the audience what they were most proud of having gained from their first weeks at Higher Ground. But she learned they were more eager to brag on one another.<\/p>\n Supporters say Higher Ground<\/a> provides stability and a reentry point after leaving jail, prison, or a treatment center. It offers a range of services and support in an area devastated by addiction to painkilling pills and other types of opioids. Most fundamentally, it\u2019s a true home, with one- and two-person bedrooms, a communal kitchen, and a den. Residents say they have found affirmation from a cohort of women who understand how addiction can demoralize a person and estrange them from family and community.<\/p>\n Ronda Morgan, a resident, said her family has always been in her corner. But while she was serving a jail sentence for drug possession, she told herself, \u201cI\u2019m sick of them having to do time with me.\u201d She was ready for recovery. Her daughter, who\u2019s a nurse, told her about Higher Ground, the first facility of its kind in sprawling, rural Lee County. Morgan learned she could live there for up to two years to gain the footing that had eluded her in three-plus decades of addiction.<\/p>\n What she didn\u2019t anticipate was the kinship she forged with her housemates \u2014 among them, Syara Parsell \u2014 and with Higher Ground\u2019s staff.<\/p>\n Parsell, 35, one of Higher Ground\u2019s first residents, said that in her time there she\u2019s received help finding employment and enrolling in community college courses.<\/p>\n From the staff and Kingsolver, Parsell said, she has received judgment-free support. \u201cTogether,\u201d she said, \u201cwe figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n Traditional treatment facilities typically operate under highly structured medical supervision. Recovery houses, like Higher Ground, offer a more relaxed environment, helping move a resident \u201ctoward being an independent, fully functional, self-reliant human being,\u201d said Marvin Ventrell, CEO of the National Association of Addiction Treatment Providers.<\/p>\n \u201cRecovery occurs in the community,\u201d he said. But reentry must be approached delicately. \u201cWhen addiction occurs with a human being, it also occurs within a family social structure.\u201d If a person in early recovery returns to a family that\u2019s unprepared, that person\u2019s chances of success \u201care severely diminished.\u201d<\/p>\n For Kingsolver, the opioid crisis became a focal point for what she hoped would be \u201cthe great Appalachian novel.\u201d The epidemic \u201chas changed so much of the texture of this place,\u201d devastating families and communities.<\/p>\n Pharmaceutical companies targeted central Appalachia<\/a> for sales of what they falsely claimed were addiction-resistant<\/a> prescription opioids. Kingsolver wanted to \u201ccast my net back over all of the extractive industries that have come to this place, taken out what was good, and left behind a mess.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe way I put it is, \u2018They came to harvest our pain when there was nothing else left,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n In research for \u201cDemon Copperhead,\u201d she immersed herself in the stories of people who\u2019ve navigated addiction and those who care and advocate for them.<\/p>\n The novel has been an enormous success, having sold more than 3 million copies and earning far more than her previous works. Kingsolver decided to dedicate hundreds of thousands of dollars to address the crisis that has overwhelmed the region where she was raised \u2014 and to which she returned full time in 2004.<\/p>\n Again, she set about listening. Drawing on a wide range of expertise, she determined that a women\u2019s recovery home was the wisest investment.<\/p>\n Joie Cantrell works as a public health nurse in harm reduction<\/a> for the Virginia Department of Health, supporting policies and practices to curb the negative effects of drug use, and serves as Higher Ground\u2019s board chair. She had long recognized the need for just such a home.<\/p>\n \u201cThat was the part that was missing,\u201d Cantrell said. Too often, when someone would come out of a treatment facility or incarceration, \u201cwe lost them. They fell back into the same old patterns.\u201d She said the region sorely needed a safe, stable environment where women could recalibrate.<\/p>\n By August, the home reached its capacity of seven women. It\u2019s right in town, \u201cwhich is so important,\u201d Kingsolver said, \u201cbecause in this part of the country we have no public transportation.\u201d<\/p>\n Parsell has long suffered from social anxieties; drugs were her escape. Here, her housemates embraced her. They\u2019ve offered the support she\u2019d never experienced.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery two seconds, someone\u2019s like, \u2018Syara\u2019s here!\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m very grateful for it.\u201d If there\u2019s an issue in the house, \u201cone of the seven of us has the solution.\u201d<\/p>\n Four residents are employed outside the home, one is enrolled in community college classes, one is completing her GED with plans to continue her education, and everyone volunteers in the community. Crafting classes are offered. Family members visit.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re living life,\u201d said Subrenda Huff, who was filling in while director Liz Brooks took maternity leave.<\/p>\n Morgan said she accomplished more in a month at Higher Ground than she had in years. That includes applying for identification documents, taking budgeting classes, and seeking permanent housing. It includes sharing upkeep duties in the house.<\/p>\n Such was Kingsolver\u2019s vision. But, she said, \u201chere\u2019s what I didn\u2019t expect: The community embraced this with loving arms. I thought maybe people would say, \u2018I don\u2019t want this in my backyard.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Most of the furniture was donated. Kingsolver\u2019s quarter-million or so social media followers have been instrumental in that. \u201cBut it\u2019s not just book clubs in Switzerland or in California; it\u2019s people in Pennington Gap,\u201d she said. Church groups have donated \u201cquilts, bedside lamps, things to hang on the walls just to make it homey.\u201d<\/p>\n Before the facility opened, local folks volunteered to pull weeds, take down an old fence, and put up a new one. Kingsolver said the well of support \u201chas been just endless. It\u2019s been deep, and loving, and a wonder to see.\u201d<\/p>\n Higher Ground, with only one paid staff member, has estimated yearly operating costs of $120,000, Cantrell said. Residents are charged $50 a week. Ventrell said that fees at other recovery houses vary widely but that $2,500 a month is an approximate average.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want them to focus on saving money and paying any restitution or fines they may have from past charges,\u201d Cantrell said. \u201cSome may be focused on repaying child support they may owe.\u201d<\/p>\n Higher Ground receives no federal or state funding. Donations continue to pour in. And Kingsolver recently bought the building next door with plans to open a thrift shop, which would be a source of additional income for the home and offer retail work experience for its residents.<\/p>\n Supporters aspire to open more Higher Ground homes elsewhere in the region.<\/p>\n What these women are gaining, Kingsolver said, \u201cis not just sobriety, but belief in themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\nUSE OUR CONTENT<\/h3>\n