This month at Nexus Recovery Center, Admissions Intern Courtney Drake talks about how she found hope with Nexus. We also feature our Thanksgiving banquet courtesy of Chef to the Shelters, as well as our Holiday Toy Drive. Finally, we tell you how you can give back to Nexus during this season of generosity.
Security
Nexus Hosts Holiday Toy Drive
Nexus’ Outpatient Services are hosting a Toy Drive on December 21 at the Nexus campus on La Prada. From 10am to 2pm, we will be set up in the parking lot outside the Outpatient group room, with gifts on display so parents can “shop” for their kids. If you are interested in participating, volunteering, or donating, please email us at development@nexusrecovery.org. Together, we can make the holidays bright for the families we serve!
Community
Chef to the Shelters Delivers Thanksgiving
This year, the entire Nexus community was treated to a Thanksgiving banquet in our Dining Hall. The meal was provided to us by Chef to the Shelters, which provides meals to nonprofit organizations throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. Thank you to Chef to the Shelters and Chef Mike McCoy for providing this holiday feast. Special thanks to all of the board members, auxiliary members, and volunteers to came out to make this meal a true celebration!
Dignity
Courtney Finds Hope in Nexus
This month, we feature our Admissions Intern Courtney Drake. Courtney first came to Nexus with a complete loss of hope. Her daughter was in Child Protective Services (CPS) and she was living out of her storage unit. Friends and family had turned their backs on her, so she had to ask her daughter’s father to take her to Nexus. Nexus gave her hope and the tools to analyze and deal with her situation. She found her purpose in life as she walked through her journey of recovery. She got her daughter back, got off probation, and has been plugged in to Nexus since 2018.
Nexus’ Recovery Support Services (RSS) staff were very impactful and never made her feel like a question was stupid. Courtney is thankful for the laptop and printer that she received from Nexus. She also didn’t have to go to the library to print or use the computers. She could do it from home, which made her more inspired and excited to pursue her education and fight for her future.
Courtney likes achieving things and wakes up every day with a purpose and drive. No longer with a lack of hope, she is determined and has hope and courage for life and her future. Courtney wants to inspire others to know and believe that they can get to where she has gotten. “It takes more to stay in drugs than it does to walk in recovery,” she says. “I don’t ever want to go back to where I was. If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting.”
“It’s my responsibility to do what it takes to not hurt my family again,” Courtney says. It meant a lot to her that her sister said, “I am so proud of you.” Courtney now has a good relationship with her family.
Support
Give the Gift of Hope and Resilience!
On Thursday, December 23, 2021, Nexus welcomed a mother and her children into residential services prior to taking a short pause in admissions for the holidays. For many people, the thought of checking into a substance use disorder treatment facility, kids in tow, the day before Christmas Eve is tragic. For women in long-term recovery, this is different. We know that the gift this mother gave her children last year was priceless. A gift more meaningful than any toy under a tree. By coming to Nexus, she gave them hope for a better and more resilient life. She gave them the mother they once knew, and they prayed would someday return. This family was welcomed with open arms by dedicated Nexus staff members, ready to love mom until she could love herself, and willing to shower her children with positivity and cheer while being away from their own families for part of the holidays.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported more than 107,000 drug overdose deaths in 2021, with 75% of those deaths involving opioids. Certainly, there is work to be done around treating underlying mental health disorders, identifying women impacted by trauma and getting them into services, and eliminating the fentanyl now found in nearly all street drugs. However, there is also a way to prevent these overdose deaths: treatment. Every woman that comes to Nexus is saving her own life by seeking a way out of the misery she has been in – by seeking recovery. If she is a mother, she very well may be saving her children’s lives too. The residential and outpatient treatment provided by Nexus is the antidote to overdose death.
More than 2,000 women made the decision to fight for their lives, and the lives of their children, this past year at Nexus. Each woman and child received trauma informed care, coping skills, evidence-based therapy, three meals a day, and a safe and nurturing environment in which they could start over. Every family cared for at Nexus is given a new chance to rise out despair and thrive in recovery.
We serve as a community of hope and recovery for all women and their families who strive to live healthy, resilient lives, and we need our community’s help. Please send your life-saving gift – your signal that these families deserve this chance to recover – to Nexus today.