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

KALAMAZOO, MI – A new 90-bed holistic facility for the treatment of alcohol and substance disorders is set to open later this month in Kalamazoo.

A grand opening ceremony for Enlightened Recovery is scheduled for 1 to 3 p.m. on Sept. 26, 2024, at 1430 Alamo Ave. The 36,000-square-foot location is a former assisted-living center for senior citizens that was gutted and renovated to become a state-of-the-art detoxification and residential treatment facility.

The Enlightened Recovery is a new 90-bed, 36,000-square-foot recovery center at 1430 Alamo Ave. in Kalamazoo.It will be the newest operation for Enlightened Recovery, which is based in New Jersey and has locations also in Pennsylvania. The project has undergone two years of planning and development. The Kalamazoo location was originally expected to open in May.

"Our Kalamazoo facility is a testament to our commitment to expanding access to quality addiction treatment services through holistic healing — in the communities which need it the most,” Blaire Zielke, executive director of Enlightened Recovery Michigan, said in a prepared statement. “We’ve created a program and an atmosphere where individuals can heal their mind, body, and soul — and ultimately, find a path to lasting recovery."

Local manager Blaire Zielke stands in a one-person room at Enlightened Recovery of Kalamazoo.The residential treatment program is a 24-hour-a-day experience that typically lasts about 30 days.

“The idea is that after they graduate from residential (treatment), they would continue coming for their outpatient services," Zielke has said.

The Kalamazoo operation will feature medically monitored adult detoxification services, residential inpatient services, and intensive outpatient care, along with medication-assisted treatment options. 

According to information provided by the organization, it will also offer “unique programming centered around holistic healing and wellness.” That includes nutrition counseling, meditation, health and wellness education, and life skills workshops “designed to help clients thrive in their lifelong recovery post-treatment.”
The operation will employ about 50 people, including a clinical and nursing team.

More information about employment opportunities is available at info@enlightenedrecovery.com

The organization hopes to treat more than 10,000 people during the next five years.
Founded by Jennifer Hansen in the late 1990s, Enlightened Recovery centers focus on “the whole person, using a lot of holistic remedies integrated with traditional, clinical, and medical practices.”

Jennifer Hansen, founder of Enlightened Recovery CentersHansen bases her treatment programs on her own experience with drug addiction. She has been clean and sober since 1996 but her struggles took her from the streets of New Jersey to treatment facilities in California. After returning to southern New Jersey, she founded the nonprofit Hansen Foundation in 1999 to fund sober living facilities for men and women. That organization developed Enlightened Solutions Inc. and a subsequent group of residential treatment facilities.

“We really believe in a person becoming fully sustainable,” Hansen has said. The organization’s hashtag “Be enlightened” refers to helping people awaken the soul, the body, and the mind, she has said.

According to information provided by her, “The expansion of Enlightened Recovery’s footprint into Michigan advances the organization’s goal of helping to grow the recovery community across the country — particularly in the communities which need it most.”

The grand opening event is expected to bring together local dignitaries and leaders from the recovery community, as well as members of the community.