This year, there are glimmers of hope as the number of vaccinated people increase.  However, at Santa Maria we are still adhering to strict COVID-19 protocols, so our celebration had to be planned around those safety measures.   We were able to celebrate Easter on both campuses, involving our moms and kids in the holiday.

We are so grateful to our partners in the local community for showering us with so much love.  Without your support these celebrations would not be possible.

Easter with TEAM Maldonado and Low Masters Car Club

Easter is a major family holiday celebration, especially for children. Kids are excited to meet the Easter Bunny,  go on an egg hunt with their friends and eat a few jellybeans.  This year all of these traditions were made possible thanks to a generous group of volunteers: TEAM Maldonado and Low Masters Car Club.  The joy that this Easter Bunny brought was almost unreal… kids and adults waved and said hello with such an excitement!

Snow cones and popcorn treats kicked off the celebration, as our families enjoyed the beautiful spring weather, while social distancing.  Soon, an antique car parade arrived on the scene, with the Easter Bunny in the final truck.

Soon after, our volunteers had an enormous barbecue pit going to feed our families delicious burgers and hot dogs, grilled in their special smoker.  An amazing egg hunt followed dinner with over 1,000 eggs and other toys spread on the lawn.  The hunt was the biggest part of the afternoon entertainment and as the families headed back inside, each mom and child were given a special goodie bag.

We are so grateful to Omar and Anna Maldonado from TEAM Maldonado, Low Masters Car Club and everyone else who made this possible. Thank you for bringing so much joy to our campus and sharing your cheerful spirit with our residents. It was a colorful and joyful celebration enjoyed by kids and adults alike. Thank you for your support to Santa Maria, thank you for your friendship, thank you for your love.

Cindys Toy Box

Here is Cindy Schoeller with Cindys Toy Box who brought 85 Easter baskets filled with Discovery Toys, candy and eggs for our children. Each basket was made with age-appropriate toys for learning and development. This is Cindy’s second year to bless our kids! Thanks to the loving spirit of Cindy and her customers whose donations and time make this happen! Baskets were distributed over the weekend to some lucky lads.

Archway Academy

Mom ,Lisa Lyerly and daughter, Presley dropped off lots of items for our moms at Jacquelyn House to assemble Easter baskets for their children. Dozens of stuffed eggs, buckets, Easter grass and small toys made great choices for the project! Our thanks to the families at Archway Academy who pitched together to bring us these festive items. Lisa and Presley have been visiting Bonita House since before Presley was born! They make each holiday special with their thoughtful gifts.

Christ Church Sugarland

Our friends from Christ United Methodist Church delivered Easter baskets for our kids at Bonita House and craft kits for spring! Pictured are Sandra Vautrain, women’s group coordinator and JoAnn Marshall, case manager at Santa Maria receiving this beautiful bounty of donations.

Easter Basket Assembly with our residents at Jacquelyn!

Our residents at Jacquelyn campus put together Easter baskets for their children… each basket was thoughtfully assembled by the moms along with a handwritten, personalized message to each one of their children. These mothers had a joyful and fun afternoon thinking of their children who are at home while they work hard in their recovery treatment!

Led by Amelia Murphy, our Senior Director of Recovery Support Services, many of our peer recovery support specialists are learning and practicing advocacy skills through preparation and participation at the 2021 Recovery Day at the Capitol. With the advice and counsel of Jen Powis, from Bolder Advocacy, these dedicated and passionate Santa Maria professionals are learning to ask governmental representatives to help them by supporting legislative bills that promote and fund prevention, treatment and recovery for the citizens of Texas.

Recovery Day at the Capital is scheduled for Wednesday, March 31.  The virtual session will begin by featuring an overview of current bills in committee and headed towards consideration in this session. Later in the day, virtual office visits with State Senators and House Representatives are scheduled. Registration is open to all who have interest through the Recovery Peoples’ website Recovery Day at the Capitol 2021 – RecoveryPeople.

Recovery People is an organization which supports peer-led recovery by connecting people, communities and resources, building the capacity of recovery workforce and support services and shaping recovery policy and program development.  The group is a peer-led and peer-driven organization which believes in grassroots engagement.

Bolder Advocacy is a program at Alliance for Justice.  Our coach and counsel, Jen Powis, offices in Houston and specializes in working with non-profit leaders to acquire skills within the rules that govern non-profit advocacy for effective options that are open to them. She works with mission-driven organizations who seek sound public policy and support for the issues they represent.

We are proud of our recovery support specialists and their dedication to their peers. They are the face of RecovHERy.

Nine years ago, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas (BCBSTX) began the Healthy Kids Healthy Families program started as a three-year initiative designed to improve the health and wellness of at least one million children through community investments. The program was extended as BCBSTX’s ongoing commitment to the health and well-being of children and families in Texas. The program has impacted the lives of millions of Texas children and families through the more than $14 million in grants awarded by BCBSTX to community organizations statewide. BCBSTX — the only statewide, customer-owned health insurer in Texas — is the largest provider of health benefits in the state

BCBSTX recently announced it was awarding $1.8 million from their Healthy Kids, Healthy Families initiative to 28 community-based organizations statewide.  Santa Maria was fortunate to be one of the beneficiary agencies. The grant will support our Caring for Two (CFT) program.  This is our first award from BCBSTX.

“This year’s grant process was especially important given the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Sheena Payne, BCBSTX’s director of Community Investments. “So, we are happy to award these grants that will support and nurture meaningful and transformational projects across Texas. Strategically, it is also important that we continue to aid community- based organizations that are directly supporting children and families who have been impacted by the health, economic, and social implications of this pandemic.

Indeed, our CFT is one of the most transformative programs in our portfolio.  CFT provides evidence-based support, education and tools to help vulnerable families improve their ability to appropriately care for, nourish and interact with their young children. At its’ foundation, CFT promotes healthy infant-child development through improving the home environment and caregiver competencies, attitudes, and behaviors.  A crucial component of the work includes improving the mother’s mental and physical health so she is better able to bond with and care for her child.  CFT helps mothers sustain long- term recovery from substance use, provides the entire family with education, skills and support to commit to and sustain positive behavioral changes and builds resiliency in children to mitigate trauma. It is a natural extension of our continuum of care and has been experiencing rapid growth since its inception in 2013.

CFT serves women who are pregnant or have children up to 18 months, their children and families. The program engages women as early in pregnancy as possible to help reduce potential health risks to the baby’s developing brain, from maternal alcohol or drug use and to assist the mother in developing the support and skills needed to ensure a safe and nurturing environment for her infant. The program targets lower income women at risk for or using/dependent on alcohol and drugs, including those with co-occurring mental health disorders and histories of trauma.

CFT uses an integrated, multi-disciplinary team, including Parent Coaches (master level counselors or LCDCs), Nurse Health Educators, Peer Recovery Coaches/Linkage Specialists, and a Consultant Physician. Services include parenting education, parent coaching to model positive parenting behaviors, baby safety and infant care, screening for postpartum depression and other behavioral health disorders, peer support, trauma and mental health counseling, health care navigation, care coordination and case management to assist with benefits enrollment, transportation and housing assistance.

Our staff tailors services to each mother-child dyad and family, providing services in individual or group format, at the home or a community based site, to best meet family needs. In addition, CFT works with partner healthcare and social services providers to improve their ability to serve vulnerable families impacted by substance use and/or trauma through the provision of education, training, technical assistance, and onsite support through co-location and integration of services. CFT services are currently provided for the residents of our treatment program as well as at 18 partner locations to improve care access.  Due to COVID protocols, a number of our community services now are offered virtually and we are looking forward to the day when we can fully return to the field.

Santa Maria is grateful for the support of this new partner and look forward to a long and productive partnership with of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas.

We are so grateful for the many inquiries of how we fared during the snow storm and the frigid temperatures.  Like most of the city, indeed the state of Texas, we were hampered with loss of power, water and a few broken pipes.  Luckily, no lasting damage or injuries came our way.  We had 154 women in residence, 36 children and 52 babies under the age of one at our three properties.

Many of our staff were unable to get to work on Monday and so those that were on property stayed extra hours and even overnight to provide all necessary services.  While visiting with the clients on Sunday, they each had stories to tell of banding together and “riding it out” as a community.  Their spirits were high and they had great respect for those that stayed with them and made sure they were safe.

Sharing some of their comments:

“It was kind of fun, we had to live “wilderness style”, melting the snow to use for our toilets.”

“I knew it wasn’t going to be forever and I had faith and hope that we would help each other. And we did.”

“I am really grateful to have been a part of that, God was blessing us in different ways during the storm, you could feel it in the ambience, everyone was calm.”

“Our counselor braved the roads each day to be with us, she is the bomb.”

“Our tech staff cooked our meals and then delivered it to our rooms three times each day so our children did not have to go out.  They did everything we needed.”

“I was so grateful to be here, instead of the county jail, where I came from.  We were safe and they took good care of us.”

“We did peer-led support groups:  AA twice a day, relapse prevention and more to stay on track.”

“One of the techs stayed four days in a row, sleeping in her office.  She took care of everything.  Just to thank her, we made her a poster to hang on her wall at home.  She was amazing.”

“It was actually fun at first, we made snowmen in the courtyard and had snowball fights.  We were like kids.”

“We made the best of it.  Some of the girls were braiding hair and giving each other new hairstyles.  We are looking pretty good!”

“My 8 month old made us all happy.  She was happy regardless.  She didn’t know anything was going wrong.  They brought in generators and heaters, so we were warm.”

“Our outpatient group met in the dark of our homes on ZOOM, on our phones.  We needed the support and our counselor led a great group.  It was kind of weird, but it worked.”

Special thanks to:

CenterPoint Energy for the large donation of food for our pantry.  It was plenty to restock both kitchens.

Jake’s Finer Foods for making a difficult delivery on icy roads to make sure we didn’t go without.

Harris County Supervision and Corrections Department and Gateway Operations for delivering generators and heaters for our moms with young children.

Want to help?  Please think of sending a cash donation or providing some of our basic needs.  Call or e-mail Marcia Chaney at 832-236-8611 to learn more.

SHARE YOUR LOVE!

Give An Act Of Kindness

In today’s world, we can all benefit from some positivity. We’d like to encourage you to feel empowered and share kindness with our women residents, who are working hard on their recovery journey.

DONATE INSPIRATIONAL T-SHIRTS

At Santa Maria, most of our residents arrive with just the clothes they are wearing, or only a few more. Many new participants come from homelessness or directly from incarceration. Our campus is a casual setting and T-shirts (long and/or short sleeve) provide the perfect solution to outfitting those that need the help.

Our goal for this Valentine’s day is to provide our residents with inspirational T-shirts… a piece of clothing that will provide them with comfort, confidence and hope.

Please help us reach our goal for this Valentine’s day.

With just one-click, below, you can view our Gift Registry on AMAZON, and give an act of kindness for our adult residents…

They Said It Best… THANK YOU! (click for video)

Providing Connection; Providing Heart

Connection is one of the most important treatments of substance use disorder (SUD). Connecting with other human beings that share similar experiences is one of the strongest components for recovery. This connecting ability can turn pain to passion to purpose, bringing about hope and strength for a recovery journey.

Substance use disorder is part of our shared human experience, like so many of the other diseases we face. Although we recognize hypertension, diabetes and other illnesses with a regular, accepted course of treatment, we lag behind in understanding the treatment of SUD. Many healthcare providers and community contacts are not trained to treat addiction like they are prepared to treat other chronic and life-threatening illnesses. Our community protocols for COVID have exposed many of the systems that revolve around the stigma of this disease. They have dissolved connection and forced isolation. That stigma is detrimental to the treatment and recovery methods available for someone facing this issue. Stigma allows those suffering to internalize what they believe everyone else seems to think about them and their supposed weaknesses, which causes the low self-esteem that makes recovery illusive. This stigma, entrenched in our culture and disproportionately affecting women and people of color, limits the options and the resources available for recovery and wellness.

How Do We Fight The Stigma?

We provide a safe space for treatment and harm-reduction. We lead with education and relapse prevention skills. We connect a community of services and increase the scope of the recovery community itself.

Here at Santa Maria, we also celebrate and share stories of recovery in order to change attitudes and behaviors. We know that story- sharing increases curiosity and conversation, giving a different perspective to affected lives, allowing the reader to walk in another’s shoes, if only for a while. We also know that language shapes perception and realize that we know many good women who have a difficult disease. We don’t allow for conversations of bad decisions, bad morals and bad hearts. We know that substance use steals the very soul that makes decisions, choses actions and guides hearts. We know that those who find recovery, find new joy in life and learn to turn to their new-found resiliency as a tool against stress and strife. We have learned to speak about SUD as any other medical issue and wish to share the knowledge with the medical community, our supporters and our partners. We appreciate that you are willing to join with us in bringing substance use disorders out of the shadows and into your hearts. We are grateful that you are here to support those affected and raise their stories and experiences.

Often we tell the stories of our clients’ residential treatment, the center and history of our organizational service. However, over the years, we have been adding programs that expand the continuum of care, including prevention services in the elementary schools of four different school districts; Spring Branch ISD, Alief ISD, Spring ISD and HISD. We call our program Strengthening Families, developed around a curriculum that supports parents and children exploring resiliency and strong family bonding. This past fall, the program was delivered in Spanish to Pine Shadows Elementary, Lewis Elementary and to the Christian Ministry Family Medical Health USA. The virtual classes consisted of parenting skills, children’s life skills and family skills taught through video and engaging conversation. Each was delivered with flexibility and adaptive curriculum, based on meeting the family where they were, while keeping them engaged. Our team of Tiffany Canales, Luz Mosquera and Mayda Diaz represent youth and parent prevention services expertise. They are all bi-lingual, expanding our service area and broadening our reach.

Please take a moment to hear from the parents of Pine Shadows Elementary in the Spring Branch ISD system, as they record their experiences and the lasting reflections of their participation in Strengthening Families.

Strengthening Families is just one way we develop skills and tools around lives resilient to substance use disorder.

We are here for RecovHERy!

When you buy a T-shirt, you are supporting the Peer Advisory Council of Santa Maria.

After completing the purchase transaction, bring your receipt (it can be either printed or electronically) to the Women’s Recovery Residence and Community Center as proof of purchase, so that you can pick up your items.

Pick up address:

807 Paschall St.

Houston, Tx 77009

Pick up time:

Wednesdays  6:00 pm-8:00 pm

 *You must complete your purchase before 5pm on Tuesday, so that it can be picked up on Wednesday.

For any questions, you may contact Cassandra Hall  by sending an email here.

To purchase PAC T-shirts, click here.