Walking through brightly painted halls up to the Wooden It Be Lovely art studio, she starts her day with a group session sharing thoughts with other women in her program recovering their lives from addiction, before setting up her crafting station.
Williams has been part of the Wooden It Be Lovely nonprofit program for three and a half years, which provides work and aid for women to recover from addiction and homelessness. The job is part time but helps toward her goa of owning a house. Williams is one of 15 women who are part of the nonprofit's recovery program meeting on weekdays.
The nonprofit was founded by Executive Director Rev. Margaret Ann Jessup providing transitional employment, mentoring, recovery tools and a safe community for women recovering from substance abuse. More: Nonprofit's raffle makes a dream come true for one Springfield woman. Homelessness is a reoccurring topic in Springfield, with regular calls made by speakers to Springfield City Council about a need for more unhoused support. Many people living on the streets or in emergency shelters struggle with use of drugs, which can lock users out of step programs to recovery.
Since the program's creation in , Jessup says around women have passed through the doors of the studio. If the community has a hole, we try to fill that. Martie Blaylock has been with the WIBL program for two years and says the nonprofit has saved her life. Through remission and return to recovery, Blaylock uses her experiences and lessons learned on the road to recovery. Three days out of rehab, Kara Malott had a job. It's been almost three months since she joined the program, she said was saving her.
They've made it so much easier to be here. Holding back some much-deserved tears, Malott wants more women to know about WIBL because "I love the idea there's going to be a future for this place, and I'm not going to be the only one. Y Communities , another Springfield nonprofit dealing with family homelessness aids in women transitional and permanent housing programs with weekly accountability checks.
