Photo by Wayne Towner The Hope Recovery Manor at 1016 Market St. will become a treatment center for women recovering from substance abuse in the Mid-Ohio Valley.

PARKERSBURG — The Junior League of Parkersburg is working to address one of the issues of the ongoing opioid crisis in the Mid-Ohio Valley — the need for more services for women recovering from substance abuse.

The organization has been working for months to renovate and develop 1016 Market St. into a recovery center called the Hope Recovery Manor.

An open house was held Sunday afternoon to show off the work which has been done to convert the home into a treatment facility to raise awareness and funds to get the program underway.

Dr. Priscilla Leavitt, a board member with the Junior League, said the Hope Recovery Manor will be a two-year program with the goal of helping women begin to learn how to live clean and sober after going through recovery, she said. It will be open to women referred from other agencies and organizations who have been sober at least six months.

During the first year, up to 12 women will reside at the manor. They will be supervised 24/7 by an executive director, house manager and peer support staff. The holistic program will provide healthy living experiences, teaching, counseling, employment assistance and spiritual encouragement.

Photo by Wayne Towner An open house was held Sunday at the Hope Recovery Manor at 1016 Market St. in downtown Parkersburg. The Junior League of Parkersburg is working to raise operating funds to open the facility after months of preparations and thousands of dollars of renovation and preparation work.

After living in the manor for one year, they will begin to live on their own. To help them transition, they will receive $1,000 back from the program fees they will have paid during the first year. The goal of the program is to establish them into a stable living environment with a sustainable job as they continue to receive counseling and mentoring through the Hope Recovery Manor Program, Leavitt said.

The 12 women at the manor will have a mentor for two years to support them during their residency and continue for the next year of independent living after they leave. Services will include weekly individual counseling, weekly group counseling, yoga, parenting/relationship classes, money management and budgeting, meal preparation/shopping and job/work skills.

Leavitt said over $200,000 has been spent on preparing the center, mostly by bringing it up to code for its intended use. She said the group is initially seeking to raise $175,000 to cover the first year of operation, either through grants or donations. The timeframe for when the center can open depends almost entirely in finding that funding, she said.

“We could be open next month” if the money was made available, Leavitt said.

For Leavitt, the project has many personal connections and connotations and her family has been strongly involved as well.

“It’s a continuation of everything I believe in. … It’s just an opportunity live out what I do as a psychologist, a counselor and a Christian and who I am,” she said.

Jane Burdette is president of the Junior League and also has a personal connection to the project. Her family once owned the building and operated as Burdette Funeral Home at 1016 Market St.

Burdette said another step in the process is gaining 501c3 status for the center and that is nearly completed.

“We’ve been told that as soon as we announce we’re ready to go, we will have a waiting list in addition to the people that will be moving in here. We’ve actually got several years worth of people, unfortunately, that will be living here. This is not a crisis intervention program, it’s a long-term recovery-type program,” she said.

Burdette said such a program is “very much needed” in the Parkersburg area, especially to serve women. There has been a lot of government support provided for crisis intervention programs, but less has been available for recovery assistance.

More information is available online at www.hoperecoverymanor.org.