Center for Hope South keeps community strong

Melissa Gallegos has seen a lot of changes in the years she has spent at the Center for Hope South (formerly the Hope and Recovery Center).  As the center’s often singular employee she puts in many days of long and busy hours at the location on Main Street, just across from the courthouse.  The location is on point, as the center serves a number of clients in recovery programs as a result of court diversion programs or in order to avoid returning to court again.

The name change does not reflect a change of philosophy or practice from Hope and Recovery.  The rebranding is just a matter of paperwork issues and clarifying the distinctive identity of the Soda Springs location.  In all other relevant ways, the Center For Hope South is the same entity that people may be familiar with on Main Street.

The center provides resources for adults as well as kids through a number of means, and helps provide assistance with clothing, food security, support networking, and of course addiction recovery.  Drug and alcohol use disorders are extremely common across the country, and lead to many negative outcomes, including health problems, legal issues, volatile family dynamics, and so on.  When individuals and sometimes families decide to enter a recovery program, they should be congratulated for making the commitment, but also supported through the sometimes rocky process.  The Center for Hope provides just that kind of support.

The Center was recently given some funding from both the city and the county to offset operating costs, but the center itself functions in large part because of Gallegos and the heart and work she continually pours into it.  

“Center for Hope is a recovery resource center,” Gallegos explains.  “So what I do is communicate with resource providers and build a knowledge of what is available in this community to help people who need it.  I’m a recovery coach, so I can help people set goals, and motivate and encourage them to set goals and maintain a higher quality of life.  I meet them where they’re at.  If that’ something they want to do, they can come in and meet with me and we’ll work on that.  I model positive relationships for them and help them know that they can figure this out.  They can achieve their goals from where they are.”

Some people are leery of counseling and support services, as they can view the providers as ‘outside forces’.  In the case of Gallegos, she is able to speak to clients as a peer.  In fact, its part of her certification.  “One of the requirements for coaches is lived experience,” she says.  “I am a recovering addict, going on thirteen years.  I am a graduate of the drug court here.  You have to have that kind of background to be able to understand and meet people’s needs in a recovery setting.  You come into it non-judgmental because you understand how hard it can be to start out from the bottom and try to change your life and rebuild it.  For the certification that I hold CPRC (Certified Peer Recovery Coach), you also have to have a mental health background to help people navigate through those kinds of challenges.”

“The ‘peer’ means we’re all on the same level.  I understand where people are coming from.”  The certification comes from IBADCC (Idaho Board of Alcohol Drug Counselor Certification) and is renewed every two years.  Gallegos has been at the Center for the last five years.  The location has moved around a bit, at one time sharing with Portneuf Family just down the street, then at another location next door briefly.  It’s current location is larger, and allows for a variety of activities and accommodations.

The Center sees around a hundred people over the month, composed of both youth and adults.  “The adults are here mostly for the services we provide, but we wanted to make sure it’s a place where they could bring their kids,” Gallegos said.  Many of the kids are involved in a youth group hosted by the Center.  The Center holds a Family Night where parents can meet with Gallegos for recovery coach issues while activities are going on.  “We like to provide a dinner and a game or something for the family,” Gallegos says.

Recovery is a process, and Gallegos is on hand as a peer coach to help clients through it.  “In a recovery coach session they sit down with me. If it’s the first time, I let them talk and just get a sense of where they’re at and I look for what their goals are while they’re talking, and hopefully by the end of it, we’re setting some of those goals.  I try to break them down into very small achievable goals early on and then build from there.  Usually it’s recovery related, one of the five basic needs. [Water, Food, Housing, Support System, and Healthy Relationships.],” she says.

Referrals from Probation and Parole, Drug Court, local doctors, and community members are some of the ways people find their way to Center for Hope South, but “a lot of it is word of mouth,” Gallegos says.

While increasing numbers are good in the sense that the Center’s services are being utilized more broadly, it comes against the backdrop that Gallegos is the only paid employee.

“Yes,” Gallegos says, “I am the only one that facilitates this building.  So, it’s a lot of work.  Eventually, I’m sure we’ll get in the mix.  I just talked with some people last week about potentially getting enough funding to bring one of the volunteers in here on a paid basis to help out.”

As the only paid employee at the Center, Gallegos puts in what could charitably be called a “bit of overtime,” (most of it off the clock, as the Department of Health and Welfare has restricted hours that it covers), she has her work cut out for her.  Despite the very limited staffing, she reports that she has not ever had to turn anyone away who was seeking services.  “It evens itself out,” she explains, “between the people who only come in for a few times and then I never see them again, and the ones who are regulars.  Some people only need things like the food boxes, or clothing.”

The food boxes had been community supplied up until recently, when the Center for Hope signed a contract with the Idaho Food Bank.  “That will be something that will be here when people need it.  The only requirement is that I need to write down a last name and how many are in the household for the Idaho Food Bank.  That’s the only requirement for food boxes.”

One of the hard parts of the job can be seeing former clients return back into the system.  Recidivism rates across the country are discouraging.  “It’s pretty high,” Gallegos says.  “I have a closer relationship with people than some places.  I have been able to recognize and see some of the success of people who have gone on and are staying in a good place.  I’ve had people who have graduated and they come back and see me and update me on how things are going.  And it’s great to see people doing well, and achieving what they want to out of life.  It is a fulfilling position that I get to have.”

Asked what things she would like to see over the next five years, Gallegos says, “I would love to have us be a little more involved with what is going on in the court system.  Probation and parole are big supporters—they send people over here as much as they can, but I’d really like to see the courts be involved a little bit more.  It’s kind of a missing link.  What’s needed for people trying to get started when they’re dealing with all that other stuff and not knowing where to start.  I’d like to be able to work with people as they go through the court system.  To bring them in here and let them see what kind of support there is for them.  The goal starting out was just to be funded.  We just wanted the community to see us and know that we’re here for them.  And that’s gotten out there a bit.  The community does see us more.”

For those who are interesting in donating some time and energy, Gallegos says, “We’re always looking for people to come in and volunteer their time, or help out with events.  If they want to come in and participate with some of the group settings, things like that.  I like to put people in the position of facilitating the groups.  I like to have two people in those positions.”

For those who might want to help out via donations, she says “Usually, people will get in contact with me to make sure I’m here.  Right now until December we take in toys, because we do a gently used toy drive for community members that struggle in that area so they can come down and pick up stuff for their kids and provide them a bit more.  Winter clothing, we’re getting ready to kick that off.  We’ll have jackets, and bibs, and boots, gloves, and winter stuff in case people need it.  In some situations the adults will go without warm clothes so that they can provide them for their kids, and vice versa if the parents have to be working outside.”

“We’ll take donations of almost anything.  We have people who need cooking stuff, where they don’t have a lot of space or resources.  So crock pots are a big item for cooking.  People donate boxes of household items and they go really fast.”

Center for Hope will have a booth at the Fall Festival on September 28, and will be having a bake sale to raise funds for activities at the center.  

The Center is also looking for projects to assist on as fundraisers.  The fire pit at Hooper Springs is one such recent project.  

The Center for Hope can be reached at 208-589-7432 and is always happy to take donations of non-perishable food items, hygiene products, clothes in good condition, and other items.  

One thing that is on the wishlist is a vehicle, which would potentially be used to transport clients to appointments out of town or around the area.  “But that’s down the road,” Gallegos says.