Women’s Life Change

Relapse Prevention Program

Are you “sick and tired” of being homeless, unemployed, and aimless? Are you able to commit 12-18 months to changing chronic behaviors and unhealthy choices?

If so, you may want to consider the Eugene Mission’s Life Change Program. Reflect on these two questions, “Do you want to get well?” and “Do you want to learn about God?” The Life Change program is a 12-18 month residential relapse prevention program that is free of charge to those who demonstrate a serious desire to heal and grow emotionally, spiritually, socially, physically and mentally. The goal is that upon graduation, program members will be able to reenter society with employment or sustainable income and housing.

Lives Change Here

• Lives Change Here •

The experience of women with addiction differs from that of men. In order to be restored to lives of sobriety, hope, and independence, women need a program that responds to the complex factors that bring them to the Eugene Mission’s door. With your support, the Women’s Life Change, a no-cost-to-participant residential addiction recovery and relapse-prevention program, is that program.

Who are these Women entering the program?

The Life Change Program for Women existed previously at the Mission, the disturbing increase in women’s addiction and overdose deaths – particularly with the predominance of meth and fentanyl – urged our action in prioritizing its permanent re-establishment.

Women’s physiology results in their becoming more easily addicted and having their addiction progress faster than that of men, resulting in more rapid onset of health problems and a greater likelihood of overdosing. Most women in treatment for addiction have experienced trauma, including an estimated 70% who have suffered sexual abuse.

With its opening dependent on being able to make capital improvements to an existing building. With the help of a generous community, the women’s program will extend the solid, proven foundation of the existing Life Change Program model, which has shown a success rate that is twice that of other programs for people with addiction.

What is it like in the Life Change Program?

This model has five phases that progress over 18 months, and is based on developing and implementing individualized plans based on each person’s barriers. It is open to those willing to step into the demanding process necessary to creating a new lifestyle of recovery – one that includes accepting responsibility for their actions, having boundaries, rebuilding and maintaining relationships, and learning how to live on a budget in a healthy community. The program includes case management, vocational and faith support, life-skills development, sponsors and mentors, and community service.

The impact of the Women’s Live Change program extends beyond the women whose lives will be transformed, as it breaks the pattern of trauma that would otherwise be handed down to succeeding generations.

"Working with our unhoused brothers and sisters on a weekly basis at Celebrate Recovery, I see the need for recovery programs for the women on our streets, many of whom have children. They are ready for help and there are almost no options for them. Women’s Life Change will do more than change lives, it will impact generations."

— Kimber Walton, Women’s Life Change Program Manager