SisterHouse Updates
Spring 2024
From Our Executive Director Patricia Banks
We are truly grateful for the contributions we receive from our loyal donors. SisterHouse offers everything our ladies need to begin the journey of a new life. We offer a safe haven where our ladies are free of the bondage of drugs, alcohol, a life of poverty, and so much more. But we can’t do it without your help!
Dee is one of our newest clients who has been in SisterHouse for just about a month. She has expressed over and over again how grateful she is to be here at SisterHouse. She believes that if she were not allowed to come to SisterHouse, she would be in jail or dead.
Dee had been the victim of a sex trafficking ring for over nine months and had recently been able to elude and flee from her captors. She took with her another individual who had been drugged and was unconscious. The car that she fled in was filled with drugs and drug paraphernalia. Though she managed to get the other person to the hospital, she later died. The only ID that Dee had with her was that which her captors had given her, which was not her own. Even though Dee had been drugged, forced into prostitution, and restrained in a basement since she was taken, she was arrested for possession because the car she used to drop the other woman off at the hospital contained drugs and she had a only false ID. After spending 28 days in detox, she was able to come to SisterHouse where she has begun to rebuild her life.
SisterHouse has been able to provide Dee with the resources she needs to clear her name and prove that she was a victim. She suffered severe trauma during her captivity, but she is working through it daily at Intensive Out-Patient Therapy and by living at SisterHouse where she is treated with compassion and dignity. We currently have two residents living who have been victims of sex trafficking. One of them is only 22 years old.
Without your donations, we would not be able to provide the services that Dee and our other residents need to overcome addiction, mental illness, and so many other barriers associated with poverty.
We really need you and are so thankful for your support of the ladies of SisterHouse.
Can You Help Us Buy New Chairs for Our Dining Room?
As you already know, SisterHouse provides a safe home for women who struggle with addiction and mental illness. One of the most important and main areas of SisterHouse is our large dining room that seats 20. This room experiences high foot traffic and is a heavily used gathering spot where the women share their daily meals, host
regular support group meetings (such as A.A),
and conduct twice-weekly transformational workshops. As you can imagine, after years of constant use, the dining room chairs have become worn and damaged and we need your help to replace them.
Each replacement chair costs $50 and we need 20 of them. Can we count on you to help us replace these chairs?
Alumni Corner
SisterHouse has an active and supportive alumnae group. They hold fundraisers for SisterHouse, many are sponsors for current residents, and all are role models. Perhaps most importantly, they serve as positive examples of sober and meaningful lives for the community and for the women currently at SisterHouse.
In this article, we are featuring two of our alumna, Denise T., and Loretta W. Below are their thoughts on SisterHouse, their time at the house, and their advice for the current residents of SisterHouse.
Tell me about your time at SisterHouse.
Denise: “Not knowing anything about recovery, my time at SisterHouse was very humbling. I made a mistake that could have ended my stay at SisterHouse. I knew right away that it needed to be fixed and never repeated. I did love being in the meditation room, that helped me on my way to a relationship with God. I learned that being my sisters’ keeper was very important for lasting sobriety.”
Loretta: “SisterHouse has blessed me with REAL sisters, friends, and associates. Psychologists who had no paper degree, but (I feel) love, peace, and gratitude for knowing them.”
What advice would you share for the current
residents of SisterHouse?
Loretta: “Don’t go anywhere until you have worked steps one through five (of the 12-Step Program) and have found a sponsor! This will help you to know yourself!”
Denise: “Don't waste this precious second chance of life that you have been given. Give this time of healing, growth, and learning a new way of life all you have and be willing to follow all the suggestions given you and don't leave before the miracle happens.”
What continues to bring you back to SisterHouse?
Loretta: “What was so freely given to me has a way of helping the new person and myself... one day, one minute, and one second at a time. Life is worth living.”
Denise: “Coming back to SisterHouse keeps it fresh and up front that I was where they are not long ago and to let them know that they can make it, too. I'm grateful for the SisterHouse program being so instrumental in saving my life, (I feel) that giving back in whatever way I can is owed.”
Thank you Denise and Loretta for so beautifully sharing your thoughts!
We appreciate all your contributions. Below you can donate online, or call us at 708-613-4424 to make a credit card donation over the phone. We also have an Amazon wishlist where you can purchase items for the ladies at SisterHouse Chicago. As always the women of SisterHouse appreciate all of your contributions.
