On Tuesday morning a ribbon-cutting ceremony and tours ushered in what will be a new recovery home in Rochester.
Dismas Home started operating out of Manchester, but they’ve expanded their services to Rochester, soon offering 28 beds between the two cities. Cheryll Andrews, executive director of Dismas Home of New Hampshire, said the goal is to one day put a home in every county in the state.
“Our founder, Julie McCarthy Brown wants a home in every county before she passes away,” Andrews said.
Dismas Home offers women who have been involved with the criminal justice system evidence-based substance use treatment programs and helps them establish independent living. Women who participate in Dismas Home can stay up to 15 months. The home is also staffed 24/7 and offers mental, behavioral, and physical health support.
Andrews said there’s already a waitlist to get in. The home gets referrals from court systems, county and state jails, and defense attorneys. They require people fill out an application, where they are vetted before becoming accepted into the program.
Andrews said Dismas Home differs from other treatment facilities that may work only with women with children by allowing women who don’t have children or aren’t with them to attend their program.
“We don't serve women with children, we serve [women] who want them back,” Andrews said.
Andrews said about 67% of the women who enter the program complete it and 90% of those that do stay sober for the long term.
Alacia Linville graduated from Dismas Home’s program in Manchester. She was homeless when she went to jail in Belknap County in 2019. She said she had been to jail before for short periods of time but this time she was in for eight months for the sale of methamphetamine.
“After about my third month in, I started to think I need an aftercare plan,” Linville said. “I had gone to treatments numerous times and none of them had worked.”
Linville said a case manager referred her to Dismas Home in Manchester where she ended up staying over 15 months, starting in 2020.
She said she was hesitant at first. Manchester was the city she was using in, she hadn’t tried an aftercare program before and she thought it would end up being more of a transactional situation but she said she was surprised to find they gave her the help she needed.
“The support, that was different this time,” Linville said. “I was used to going into programs, getting the support, getting out – I was homeless again.”
Linville moved to Hampton after her time at Dismas Home and stayed at Magnolia House as she addressed other charges she had from Rockingham court. She said Dismas Home helped her navigate dealing with them.
She said it feels good to say she’s been sober. She said she has been since 2023 but found recovery in 2019. It was a year into her sobriety that she said she felt she knew she could continue to do it.
She now lives with her 2-year-old daughter Jocelyn and fiance in Newmarket.
“I look at my family today and I just can't imagine, like ever moving backwards,” Linville said.
Dismas Home in Rochester is expected to start housing women in early August. The home still needs to be licensed, furnishings need to be placed and some construction is still undergoing.
