Oliver House
Our Oliver House program allows Casa Serena to welcome recovering women and their children. Mothers are reunited with their children in a safe and nurturing environment, and women who achieve sobriety while pregnant may welcome healthy babies into a sober, supportive and functional extended family. Oliver House provides you with an opportunity to continue building a foundation of recovery from substance abuse in a residential setting that includes your young children.
At Oliver House, we can address the challenges unique to single mothers emerging from alcohol and drug abuse.
Women at Oliver House are required to work, volunteer or attend school 20-30 hours a week. In addition, they attend 12-step meetings, parenting education, process groups, individual counseling sessions and meet with a child development specialist. This support and training prepares young mothers to establish independent lives beyond Oliver House.
When a woman comes to Oliver House, she may have immediate custody of her children or she may (as often is the case) be involved with Child Welfare Services and only have visitation privileges. Many families have been successfully reunited in this supportive, supervised setting.
Our Oliver House staff works closely with Child Welfare Services and the criminal justice system to help ensure the best possible outcome for the children as well as their mothers. Even with this support, family reunification can be a slow, painstaking process and the outcome depends on the needs of both the woman and child. Residency of up to a eighteen months at Oliver House allows for the time needed for optimal functioning of the family. Over 90% of women who have been separated from their children are reunited at Oliver House each year.
Oliver House provides a home to four families at a time, and each year helps approximately 12 women and 12 children.
