Crossroads, Inc. broke ground Wednesday on a new facility that will keep families from being broken up when drug-addicted moms enter rehab.
Seated in a quiet stretch of the West Hills neighborhood, Crossroads has helped over 6,000 people recover from addiction since it opened in 1972. Clients new and old shared stories of recovery at a groundbreaking ceremony Wednesday for a new women’s facility that will add to the complex at 44 – 54 East Ramsdell St.
Crossroads already runs Amethyst House on Howe Street, one of the few residential rehab facilities in the state that allow women to bring in more than one child under 5. An expansion plan will allow Crossroads to accommodate more kids and give them more space to play. Plans include a daycare center where kids can stay when their moms are at job sites, training to get back into the workforce.
The new $5 million expansion plan comes thanks to $2.5 million in state bonds, as well as mortgages from private banks. Click here for a past story outlining the 11-year struggle to make the expansion happen.
The new facility is slated to open in about a year. The groundbreaking Wednesday was a chance to celebrate the milestone and share success stories.
“It’s a dream come true,” said Genny Palmieri. She co-founded Crossroads 36 years ago, when it was a tiny operation with only four clients, housed at the downtown YWCA. Organizers thanked State Sen. Martin Looney and State Rep. Toni Walker for their support at the Capitol over the years.
Robert Davis told of his remarkable journey from a Crossroads client getting a start in the workforce, to becoming the general manager a local outlet of a national retail megachain.
He said he came through Crossroads 13 years ago. After spending his teenage years in prison for selling drugs, he said, he became an addict himself.
“Before I got here, it’s no secret I was a mess,” he told a crowd of 200 clients, staff and politicians gathered under a white tent.
The transition wasn’t easy. “When I first got here, I did not like it. I hated it,” he said. “It was just another way for the Department of Corrections to control me and tell me what to do.” But the program ended up changing his life.
As part of the rehab plan, he took a job stocking shelves at $8 per hour for the local outlet store, which he declined to name. Davis soared up the ladder and 13 years later, he’s now the general manager of a store with the same company. Now, he’s the one giving recovering addicts from Crossroads a chance at entry-level jobs.
“I’m living proof that change is possible,” said Davis. He even wrote a book about his experience. It’s called “Driven: A Young Man’s Journey To Escape his Past.”
Francine Quinn, the mom of a former Crossroads client, told how her daughter’s life took a “drastic turn” two years ago, when her 21-year-old daughter got into a drunken car crash that injured a passenger in her car. After a DUI charge, her daughter started acting out and became more drug-dependent. She went to four rehabilitation centers before Crossroads, she said. Four months at Crossroads set her back on her feet. Now she’s planning to go to college.
“I’m deeply grateful” to Crossroads, Quinn said, “for giving us back the daughter we lost two years ago.”
Marcellette Ziebell (pictured), who’s nearing the end of a six-month stay at Crossroads, had news of her own to announce. She said she struggled for seven years with addictions to crack cocaine and money. She’s now been clean for one year. After completing a job training course with STRIVE, she said she just landed a job working at the a local dollar store. Friday’s her first day.
Ziebell, who’s 42, said she hopes to come back to the women’s facility when it’s completed to share her experiences with the clients there.