This month at Nexus Recovery Center, we cover the recent Outpatient Services Fall Festival, and thank all of the volunteers who helped make a special Thanksgiving Day celebration for our clients and their children. We also highlight former client Amanda King, who found purpose in her recovery journey. Finally, we ask you to think about being “present” this holiday season by giving a “present” to Nexus!
Security
Volunteers Deliver Thanksgiving Feast
Nexus clients were treated to a holiday banquet in our Dining Hall on Thanksgiving Day. Several groups of volunteers came out to serve a special Thanksgiving feast to the women and children that we serve. Once again, the meal was provided by Chef to the Shelters, which donates meals to nonprofit organizations throughout the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex. Thank you to Chef to the Shelters, and all of the volunteers to came out to make this meal a true celebration!
Community
Nexus Community Celebrates Fall
Last month, Nexus supporters held a very successful Fall Festival benefiting Nexus Outpatient Services. Several companies sponsored the event, including Pinche Smokers, Gamez Reliable Tax Service, and Ya Tu Sabes Radio. Hosted outside of our Recovery Support Services office on Buckner, the festival featured barbecue from Pinche Smokers’ food truck, as well as a dessert bar featuring pancakes from Mini Delights by Monica, a bounce house, face painting from Chely’s Facepainting, brand new kids’ shoes from Pasos for Oak Cliff, lots of coats/clothes, baby items, toys, and more! Everyone had a great time making new connections in the recovery community. See the gallery below for pictures from this event!
Photos from Fall Festival
Dignity
Amanda Finds Her Purpose at Nexus
Amanda King says that her life before Nexus Recovery Center was unmanageable, destructive, and she didn’t know where to turn. She was lost, broken, and hurt. Stuck in a pattern of bad decisions, Amanda felt like she had caused irreversible damage in her children’s lives, as her substance use disorder (SUD) had caused her to lose contact with her family.
“My marriage was failing, and I was losing more and more of who I was every day,” says Amanda. “I felt alone, scared, and I hated who I had become. I couldn’t find one thing about myself that I loved anymore.”
From the first day of walking into Nexus, Amanda felt hope. She was scared, yet so at home from the moment she arrived. Amanda remembers the first person telling her it was going to be okay; that she wasn’t the first person to walk through that door that had done the things she held so secretly inside. Amanda was given a bed in Nexus’ Detox dorm, and that is where the change began. Her techs were attentive and non-judgmental, her counselor was understanding and listened to her, and took the time to give Amanda basic suggestions to get her life back on track.
With a firm understanding of substance use disorder, Nexus staff members were able to walk Amanda through what her life could look like in recovery. Nexus provided trauma-informed therapy, helping Amanda walk through her past trauma, addressing not only what had been done to her, but what she had done to others as well.
“Nexus showed me how to start loving myself again, despite what I had done,” Amanda says. “I began to understand that I had made mistakes and got rid of the belief that I was a mistake. Nexus staff began to show me a better way of thinking, how to process my feelings in a healthy way, and gave me a new way of life”
Amanda’s life has completely changed in the past year. She does not even recognize the woman that walked through those doors that day. Amanda has begun to repair relationships with family, which is the most important thing for her. Amanda has embraced the new way of life that Nexus taught her, and in that, she has found herself again.
“I have found my purpose in life, and I am committed to giving back what was so freely given to me,” says Amanda. “I thank God for Nexus for giving me my life back, for loving me when I didn’t know how to love myself, and for all their dedication, and time, and wisdom that they put into women like me every day.”
Support
Be “Present” This Holiday Season!
Unconditional love and support. Belief in oneself. The drive and determination to keep showing up. Knowing that change happens just one day at a time. Joy. These are the gifts that Angelia received at Nexus Recovery Center, and she is on a mission to pay it forward.
Angelia was admitted to Nexus on November 2, 2022, just a week after giving birth. Her son was removed from her in the hospital, and she was told they would not be reunited unless she got treatment. Angelia’s counselor, Sara, was there when Child Protective Services told her she could not have her son while at Nexus. Angelia wept and felt like giving up, but Sara held space for that pain. “She just loved me like nobody had in so very long,” Angelia said. “She loved me exactly how I needed in that moment, and she gave me the strength to stay and fight.”
While at Nexus, Angelia recounts enjoying a Thanksgiving meal with other clients and their children. She missed her own baby boy but being around the other mothers motivated her to keep going. She worked hard in treatment and showed up to every single court hearing brighter, more determined, and changed. She showed up with hope when so many others would have been resentful and angry. Angelia also spent Christmas at Nexus, and when she looks back upon last year’s holiday season, she thinks about the care and love she received, not about anything she might have missed.
This year, Angelia’s holiday will look quite different. After completing residential treatment, she moved into transitional housing and completed outpatient services while working full time and having visits with her precious son. Angelia and her son reunited just weeks before his first birthday, which they will celebrate living together with other women in recovery. They will celebrate this holiday season together, and Angelia will be present as his present.
In 2023, Nexus served more than 2,000 women like Angelia, with each woman and child at Nexus receiving trauma informed care, coping skills, evidence-based therapy, three meals a day, and a safe and nurturing environment in which they could start over. Nexus serves as a community of hope and recovery for all women and their families who strive to live healthy, resilient lives, and we need your help. As the year comes to a close, please consider making a gift to Nexus. Your present will help the women we serve to be present in their families’ lives!