The local hub for hope

COEUR d’ALENE — The long and often difficult road to recovery doesn't have to be a lonely one.

Kootenai Recovery Community Center volunteer Adrianne Ridenour understands that now.

"I was really lost," Ridenour, 36, said Tuesday. "When the recovery center first opened, I came in and I felt a sense of being OK and feeling welcome. I had nowhere else to go."

Ridenour, of Coeur d'Alene, struggled with drug addiction for 27 years. She was arrested at a young age and spent her 21st birthday in prison. She became homeless and would couch surf or stay in trap houses, cleaning up after other addicts and alcoholics.

"Sometimes I would sleep on the streets, occasionally under a tree or out in the woods, somewhere out of the way of cops," she said.

Her wanderings brought her to the recovery center, which opened in July of last year. She stopped in for a cup of coffee. Then her enrollment in mental health court brought her back.

"But by the grace of God, that program led me back here,” said Ridenour, who is now 18 months sober. "It’s working for me. I have mental and emotional stability, and substance abuse stability, for the first time in my life. It’s accredited to the program I'm in, being here and volunteering my little butt off, but also the work that I was finally willing to do."

Through her connections and friendships at the recovery center, Ridenour was able to get on her feet and start leading a better life. She now helps others find their way, whether it's through leading a women's Alcoholics Anonymous class or encouraging others to participate in creative writing.

"I spent a long time not only hurting the people that I love, but also hurting the community and being disassociated with the community,” she said. “Us as addicts, when we’re not functioning with our community, we’re robbing our community of our potential."

Since its inception, KRCC has averaged more than 500 visits a month. It's a center for all recoveries and addictions and a hub for people in any phase of recovery.

"Coeur d’Alene has good resources, but there’s nothing like a hangout spot for resources," said Skyler Frenick, 32, of Coeur d’Alene. "This place is a good hangout spot. Besides this, most of our homeless people, drug addicts, alcoholics and broken home people have nowhere to go."

Frenick, like Ridenour, was in and out of the system and constantly relapsing into unhealthy habits.

“I came from what you’d call a broken home,” he said. “I followed in my parents' footsteps, in the wrong way. I went down the wrong path in life, and for the longest time, that’s what I did."

Frenick's journey with KRCC began with a simple thing that many take for granted — a shower.

“I first started coming here and taking showers because I was homeless and I didn’t have anywhere to go,” he said. “I went from there to going out and getting a job. That’s basically where I started with this place, just taking a shower and shaving up and being a clean, presentable guy for society."

With a bright smile, he shared that he now has a permanent roof over his head and he is employed.

"I ended up landing a really good job and I’m a janitor now for a bunch of stores,” he said. "I had a choice — come to a safe spot where everybody here is living in recovery and representing what recovery is all about, or running the streets. Those were my options."

KRCC's mission is to help individuals achieve and sustain recovery from substance use and mental health disorders through a peer-based model. The nonprofit connects people to 300 classes and activities, offers 150 services and provides community service opportunities for people to help others in situations similar to their own.

Executive director Katie Schmeer believes in this model, as much as she believes in the people she works with every day.

"We’re not a treatment facility, that’s what makes us unique. We’re a recovery community center. People come here to initiate and maintain their recovery," she said. "There’s something for everybody. It’s figuring out what their goals are, what their values are and linking them to the resources that are going to most effectively help them recover.”

To celebrate the bright side of recovery, KRCC is hosting a Recovery Month Celebration from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday in Coeur d'Alene City Park. The event will include live music, a barbecue and activities to create awareness of National Recovery Month and raise funds for the center. Tickets are $10 and can be purchased through the center's website, www.kootenairecoverycenter.com. For information, call (208) 932-8005 or email contactus@kootenairecoverycenter.org.

The event will highlight the positive side of recovery, focusing on those who are working to overcome their issues and sustain their recovery.

“It's important to bring that out into the light," Schmeer said. "There’s a lot of stigma associated with addiciton. To say, ‘Hey, here we are. People do recover,’ it’s our way to put that positive face on recovery."