The SafeHouse at Damon Park is located at 1500 Pershing Ave., Middletown. For programs, call 513-423-1148 or go to its Facebook page, Salvation Army Safe House at Damon Park.
A building that was dormant for about two years now hopes to give addicts another chance at life.
Safe House at Damon Park recently opened as a recovery support center and the goal is to offer those suffering with addictions an opportunity to turn their lives around, said Jewell DeFrates, program coordinator.
The building at 1500 Pershing Ave., opened in the early 1980s as a Salvation Army center that offered after-school educational and sports programs for neighborhood children, DeFrates said. When the Middletown Area Salvation Army moved its operations to First Avenue, the center closed and became a storage facility for the agency, she said.
But now, thanks to a $50,000, three-year grant from the Salvation Army, Safe House has opened, and in the first four months, has seen an increased need for its recovery services, she said. A Families of Addicts program started two weeks ago, and more than 40 people attended the initial meetings, she said. She said as many as 10 people seeking assistance have walked into the SafeHouse in one day, and people frequently call asking about drug treatment programs.
When asked the goal of the center, DeFrates read a Scripture from Psalm 9:9-10: "God's a safe-house for the battered, a sanctuary during bad times. The moment you arrive, you relax; you're never sorry you knocked."
The center offers a Coffehouse Ministry, recovery support/educational groups, life recovery Bible studies and discussions and assistance with accessing addiction treatment services. Clients also can be referred to drug treatment, play pool, basketball and ping pong and attend fitness and nutrition classes taught every Tuesday and Thursday by volunteer Tara Koch, a West Chester native and University of Cincinnati student.
When the center opened, some residents were concerned that it would be a drug treatment center and addicts would be housed there. But DeFrates said after hosting a Neighborhood Watch meeting, the neighbors were very “welcoming.”
As the name suggests, it’s a safe place for addicts, DeFrates.
“We don’t judge them,” said DeFrates, a nurse for 33 years, including the last eight years working in drug addiction. “In here, they’re safe from the outside world.”
The opening of the SafeHouse comes at a time when Middletown is dealing with what has been described as a “heroin epidemic.” Even those addicts who survive heroin, sometimes suffer the “loss of dreams, loss of relationships,” DeFrates said. When DeFrates entered the addiction field, she said alcohol, marijuana and crack cocaine were the main culprits.
Now it’s heroin.
“They can use it one time and die,” she said. “They can almost die, be brought back to life, and in a few days, jump off this table and do it again. It’s a completely different beast. It’s takes over the brain; hijacks it.”
She said all addictions are “brain diseases.” She says no one wants to use heroin, but once they’re introduced, the drug engulfs their world.
“They just dig a hole so deep,” she said. “After a while, it becomes a relief to them.”
DeFrates, 53, certainly knows the pain associated with heroin addiction. Her son, despite being raised in a two-parent home, with a “good childhood,” became a heroin addict. He has been at a drug treatment center in Columbus since October, and she has custody of his two children, ages 11 and 8.
He was introduced to heroin after taking pain pills for a sore back, she said.
“It was on,” she said of his addiction. “It’s been a long journey.”
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