LivingProof Recovery

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What’s In Your Candy?

LivingProof Recovery Inc. was established as a nonprofit in August of 2016 by founder Claudia Hamilton. LivingProof Recovery’s mission is to help maintain the long-term recovery needs of our community through advocacy, training, housing, peer support, and spiritual guidance. It all started as one meeting held in the Well at West Rome Baptist Church. The meeting was held every Tuesday night and had around 15-20 people, including their volunteers and childcare, in attendance.

Executive Director, Catherine Lovvorn, said, “I remember sitting in that small meeting and listening to the people in the room share their lives. It was the first time that I felt comfortable enough in a meeting to be completely me, and that was enough.”

Over the next four years, LivingProof Recovery grew in abundance. In 2017, they moved into their current location at 408 Shorter Ave, Rome, GA 30165. In this location, they have continued to add services that benefit our community.

LivingProof Recovery is a Recovery Community Organization that offers recovery support services that are peer-led by people in long-term recovery. The staff is mostly compiled of Certified Peer Specialists of Addictive Disease. They have not only lived experience with addiction but they are also certified in Trauma Informed Care, Cultural Diversity, Wellness Recovery Action Plans, and Whole Health Action Management.

When you walk into LivingProof Recovery, you are always greeted with a smile. The environment is warm, inviting, and comfortable. There is no clinical aspect to this place. There is a pool table, an air hockey table, and an open art room for peers and their families to enjoy. They offer a help yourself kitchen with free water and snacks, and there is always free coffee at the coffee bar. Whether you’re passing through or coming to stay for a while, there’s always a welcoming face.

Meetings are held seven days a week, and free childcare is provided six nights a week. An amazing family of

three generations watches the children who come into LivingProof Recovery with their parents. These childcare workers pour love, trust, and complete joy into every child they keep. They also offer employment services to peers in recovery. It can be hard to get a job when you have a conviction of any type on your record. LivingProof Recovery has spent the past couple of years partnering with local employers to hire people in recovery with educational barriers and colorful backgrounds.

LivingProof Recovery believes in holistic care for individuals and their families. Addiction affects the entire family, and so should recovery! Whether it is a job, a listening ear with a certified recovery coach, help getting into detox or treatment, help with a resume or housing applications, a quiet place to read, a place to relax and find connection, clothes for the homeless, or just a cup of coffee, LivingProof Recovery has it all.

Throughout the year, LivingProof Recovery offers sober events and activities for the whole family! These events are announced on their Facebook page, and the meeting schedule is always available on their website at livingproofrecovery.org. Wellness for your body is important! On Tuesdays and Fridays, LivingProof Recovery offers Zumba classes. It is fun and healthy!

The multiple pathway approach to recovery is LivingProof Recovery’s main focus. What does your recovery look like? Everyone’s pathway to and through recovery looks different, and LivingProof Recovery wants to support you through whatever that may look like. We all need support, even if that means helping guide you in a call to your probation office or attorney. LivingProof Recovery’s staff will even go to your court cases with you as support!

In 2018, LivingProof Recovery started recovery classes in the Floyd County Jail for inmates. Through those experiences, it was discovered that women were reoffending quicker for the lack of safe and stable housing. So, in May of 2019, NEXTDOOR at LivingProof Recovery was opened. NEXTDOOR is a Recovery Residence Program for women that is 9-12 months and includes five phases. Since 2019, the program has been very successful. The program is currently full with 12 residents and has a waiting list.

This program helps women in recovery learn to live sober again. LivingProof Recovery’s staff helps women with getting their driver’s license, getting a job, pursuing their GED and furthering their education with college courses, working through trauma, learning to grow from pain, experiencing what healthy connection feels like, learning to budget, purchasing a vehicle, and eventually graduating to safe and stable housing of their own. NEXTDOOR is a beautiful program that continues to help heal our loved ones—just as the main hub of LivingProof Recovery does! It’s all about healing!

It is amazing how a borrowed space with 15-20 interactions in a month has turned into LivingProof Recovery, which received the Regional Behavioral Health Provider Award for 2021 from the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities, as well as 3,862 interactions a month for October 2021! With wellness, art, connection, fun, seven days of meetings, prayer, bible studies, a 12-step program, all recovery, medically assisted recovery meetings, harm reduction, needle exchange, family support, and a Recovery Residence, people are getting better and families are healing. Recovery is a process and it is real. Individuals and their families can heal from addiction. LivingProof Recovery can help!

Connect with LivingProof Recovery at their location at 408 Shorter Ave, Rome, GA 30165, by calling 706-204-8710. Visit LivingProof Recovery on Facebook or their website at livingproofrecovery.org.