Editor's note: This story is part of Southwest Michigan Second Wave's On the Ground Battle Creek series.

Charlie-Jo Sauceda is a recovering addict who won’t allow that part of her life to define who she is.
 
Sauceda, originally from Marshall, is a success story in the Women’s Life Recovery Program which operates under the Haven of Rest Ministries umbrella. After successfully completing the program housed in the Emily Andrus House, a stately, old, two-story brick structure on Capital Avenue NE, she accepted a Support Staff position in the program.
 
Now 16 months clean, Sauceda found herself in February 2022, on the doorstep of the Andrus House because she wanted to beat an addiction to meth that began in 2014 when her husband introduced her to the drug. Through weekly one-on-one and group meetings facilitated by an on-staff therapist and classes that focused on areas such as budgeting, Sauceda says she was able to get her life back.
 
That life began with parents who assaulted her mentally, physically, and sexually, followed by marriage to a man who would get her hooked on meth. The couple was at times homeless and found themselves bouncing between relatives' homes in Battle Creek and Marshall. During this time they came to the attention of Child Protective Services which opened a case targeting them in April 2021, because of the potential harm their drug use could have on their daughters, now 16 months and 8 years old.
 
“I had a drug test in April come back positive for meth and after that test, I found out I was pregnant with this one,” says Sauceda of her youngest daughter, Leila, who was crawling around an office in the Andrus House as she spoke. “I continued to use. It was a struggle and I had a hard time quitting. My husband was a user too and that didn’t help the situation.”
 
During a court hearing in August 2021, Sauceda said the presiding judge told her, “If I have another positive drug test I would lose my kids. I quit that same month and in October Leila was born premature, but she didn’t have any drugs in her system. I was using pretty much up until my third trimester.”
 
Charlie-Jo Sauceda is a recent graduate of The Haven’s Women’s Life Recovery Program.But, it wasn’t until January 2022, when her husband was arrested on charges including domestic assault at a home they were living in in Marshall, that Sauceda realized she had to do something.
 
“That day I called my CPS worker and told him I needed help. I needed to be there for my kids and he suggested this program and at the end of January I put in an application and I moved in with my daughters on February 23,” she says.
 
These dates are seared into her brain as a reminder of where she was and where she is now.
 
Although every woman who enters the program is recovering from some type of drug use and addiction, their backstories are different. Gloria Givhan, Program Coordinator for the WLR Program, says she is focused now on ensuring that the women she serves are as racially diverse as the situations that bring them to her and her staff of nine.
 
Out of the close to 25 women, some with children, living at the Andrus House, 98 percent are white, including Sauceda. This is a troubling statistic for Givhan who says she knows there are women in Calhoun County who identify as BIPOC (Black Indigenous People of Color) who need the services provided through her program.
 
These services include individual therapy, group therapy, spiritual counseling, case management, referrals to community resources, physical fitness opportunities, and access to the local library.
 
“I truly don’t understand and I would like to,” Givhan says of the absence of BIPOC women in her program. “It’s not because Black and Brown women aren’t struggling with substance abuse. It’s more of a culture thing.”
 
Becky Davis, left, is Case Management Director for The Haven, and Gloria Givhan is Coordinator for the Women’s Life Recovery Program.Givhan, who is African American, says in African American communities, “We are taught to deal with things internally or to reach out to our mom or pastor. Rehab programs are frowned upon in the African American communities because we’re taught to keep these things inside the family.”
 
To get beyond these culturally-imposed obstacles, Givhan is leading the development of an aggressive marketing campaign that will include in-person visits by her to Black and Brown communities to let their residents know about the program and that it is for them too.
 
“You carry God with you and use common sense and find these people who would never come to us,” she says. “Part of the issue for these women is that if they don’t see someone who looks like them, they think the program’s not meant for them and won’t work for them. Even outside of color, I would like to see people with suits and ties, business people on higher levels that struggle. It’s important that we get (the message) out there that we are here for all women. I’ve run into people who don’t even know that we’re here.”
 
The racial disparities Givhan highlights are not limited to the women served by the program. She says, “The people we employ in these addiction treatment programs aren’t overwhelmingly Black or Brown. When I go to conferences, there are maybe two or three people who look like me and they’ll say, ‘It’s good to see someone who looks like me and that gives me hope'.”
 
In her job, she says she has heard people say they thought she was going to be a white woman before talking with her in person.
 
“Most of the girls on staff here didn’t know that their boss would be a woman born in the 1980s who’s Black and that all matters,” Givhan says.
 
The work of building trust and a sense of belonging
 
Being an African American woman and a recovering opiate addict gives Givhan unique opportunities to connect with Women of Color who do come into the WLR Program like a young woman who was biracial and identified as African American.
 
“She struggled with dealing with some of the other staff and they labeled her as a problematic person. I knew when I met her that she was going to be a difficult case, but I was up to the challenge,” Givhan says. “She said, ‘I can’t relate to these women. I don’t like the food they cook.' She felt like she stuck out like a sore thumb. In the minds of people who look like her, this program is designed for what they see.”
 
Scene of a participant in a Bible study at The Haven’s Women’s Life Recovery Program.Givhan says she experienced similar feelings when she was in rehab and going through an intake process seven years ago in Georgia.
 
“I was crying and hurting and (the intake person) said, ‘I get it and I know what you’re feeling’ and I said, 'You don’t.’ A lot of the women who were in my situation don’t feel like these people really understand what we’re going through and just want to know their business and collect data,” Givhan says. "All the girls here, their body language changes and they’re not on guard when I talk with them. People want to see people who look like them and are not afraid to be with them. If they think you’re oblivious, incompetent, or scared, they’ll chew you up.”
 
Givhan says her biggest concern is that, “We are not making ourselves known to be a safe place and that people think we’re a hospital and that the support’s not going to be there once they reach out. It’s been normalized for us not to trust people. Many of these women think that DHS will want to take their kids and because of their own mental health issues will be labeled as crazy. I tell them that it's not my goal to have your children taken from you.”
 
Unlike many other addiction treatment facilities that offer programs that run 30 or 90 days, women in the WLR Program can be there from nine months to one year and are allowed to have their children stay with them. Women with children have their own rooms, while women who are there on their own normally share rooms.
 
If the women have an income they pay student fees equivalent to 10 percent of their income to stay at the house.
 
Their children can receive services similar to what their moms are getting, Givhan says. The WLR Program also provides a children's ministry complete with infant, toddler, and preschool activities while their moms attend life-skills classes, counseling, or group sessions. School-aged children are included in the Haven's "Gain Access Program" which includes life skills classes, faith-based lessons, homework assistance, social skills building, school advocacy, and individualized case management.
 
Sauceda says if she couldn’t bring her daughters with her, they would have gone into the foster care system. Her husband is in a Life Recovery Program for men operated by the Haven of Rest Ministries at its location downtown and visits her and their daughters on Sundays.
 
“I’ve noticed a difference in him and he’s noticed one in me. It’s definitely made our family stronger and better,” Sauceda says. “Having your kids here makes it harder to focus on yourself but having them with me is a reminder that this is what I’m fighting for.”
 
The typical day for Sauceda and the other women in the program begins at 7:30 a.m. with the distribution of any necessary medications and prayer. Younger children not yet in school are transported to daycare and the older children go to school. This gives the moms time to meet with the staff therapist and take classes on everything from budgeting offered by Goodwill Industries Central Michigan Heartland to resume writing taught by representatives with the Women’s Co-op, all of which takes place at the Andrus House.
 
A woman in human resources at a local hotel sends Givhan available jobs.
 
“I screen the jobs and know the candidates who’d be good at them,” she says. “I also have a list of jobs at places that work with felons. Most of our girls are felons. We have resources they wouldn’t otherwise know about.”
 
Melanie Hoenes conducts a Bible study form participants in The Haven’s Women’s Life Recovery Program.The jobs the women take are part-time because Givhan says, “They’re taking baby steps and starting out slow.”
 
“Mom’s day ends at 4:30ish. The kids come home from school and everyone carries on with their daily life. Some of the women have jobs and some are not at the point where they can get a job,” Givhan says. “In the evening they read, pray with one another, or watch movies. Some may also attend AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) or NA (Narcotics Anonymous) meetings that are run by volunteers.”
 
Dinner is prepared by a woman assigned by staff as the kitchen manager and with help from the rest of the women, meals to feed upwards of 30 people are prepared.
 
“It’s one big dinner,” Givhan says. “This creates a family atmosphere where the women know they’re supported and cared about.”
 
You have to want it
 
Sauceda says the program works for those women who want to get clean and stay clean.
 
“We get a lot of people who come in and say they want it, but they didn’t want it enough. That’s the biggest struggle for anyone who’s an addict,” she says.
 
Even Sauceda admits to having days when she thinks about meth, “but it doesn’t bother me as much as it used to. There will always be days that it’s there.”
 
To get a better sense of each woman’s commitment to overcoming her addiction, they go through a comprehensive intake process that Givhan put in place when she took over seven months ago as program director. This process includes two interviews to make sure they’re compatible and a good fit for the program.
 
“When they call we send them to Southwest Michigan Behavioral Health which gives them what they need to go through rehab for seven to 20 days,” Givhan says. “During rehab, they come up with an updated medication list. Their team hears what their needs are and gets them the services they need. When they come to us, they’re sober and detoxed and we know what their mental status is. This has been a tremendous blessing for this program. We know that addiction and mental health go hand in hand.”
 
The previous intake process involved a coordinator with the WLR Program interviewing a woman and saying “yay or nay”, she says.
 
“I knew that process didn’t work. It was too much of a risk to bring a woman on who had just used yesterday and was going through withdrawal. There were times when we have had to clean up urine and vomit. You have to hold them through the night because it’s a tough thing to go through withdrawals and this was burning out staff.”
 
While they come to the program clean, there are incidences of relapses as was the case with a woman in her 30s who Givhan describes as “beautiful and intelligent.”
 
“She phased up and got a job and she’s a swimmer and unfortunately she had a hiccup and did relapse and came into the house completely inebriated. I fought like heck to help her,” Givhan says. “With the relapse portion, we cannot want their sobriety any more than them. We have to exit them from the program right away because their behavior could be a trigger for the other girls and could compromise the program. My job is to keep them safe and sober while they’re here.”
 
Before women who have successfully navigated the program leave, they have to have a good exit plan that includes stable housing and reliable transportation.
 
Charlie-Jo Sauceda, a recent graduate of The Haven’s Women’s Life Recovery Program is seen with her two children, Leila, 16 months, left, and Lila-Rose, 8.Sauceda says she is in a good place, but what she went through and continues to go through is never far from her mind. She says it’s important for people to show empathy.
 
“There could be many reasons that they use. Don’t push them away. Try to help them if you don’t know how to reach out to someone who does. It’s a struggle and people need to know that someone cares about them,” she says. “I’m not ashamed of it. It’s my past. Being here is God’s way of giving me a second chance to do better. There were so many times that I could have overdosed and died. He kept giving me that chance and I finally took it.”