Family Focused Recovery’s Groundbreaking Ceremony was an Event that Touched the Lives of All Present

Volunteers of America Southeast Louisiana held a Groundbreaking Ceremony for our Family Focused Recovery (FFR) facility soon to be opened in the Summer of 2025. Our Family Focused Recovery program provides outpatient services for pregnant and parenting mothers and their children while they recover from substance use disorder. This program’s new facility will serve as a residential rehabilitation site, where parenting and expecting mothers will be able to receive substance use disorder treatment and live with their children all under one roof. Peer support coaches will help women navigate their recovery journey, and in-house psychiatric support will be provided for children to help the entire family overcome life’s challenges more effectively. The FFR facility will be the only residential facility of its kind in the City of New Orleans, housing mothers recovering from substance use disorder and their children to keep the nuclear family unit intact.

This event was personal, heartwarming, and truly inspiring with the words of our government officials, partners, and especially, our program’s staff members. The stories shared by all of our speakers left no dry eye in the room. After fueling our attendees with passion for this project’s furtherance, our speakers partook and a ceremonious “hammering of the nails,” where each speaker got the honor of hammering a nail into one of the wooden boards that will be used in the construction of the facility. Overall, this event gave FFR’s residential rehabilitation center a new purpose as our speakers explained the dire need for this facility to heal women within our New Orleans community.


Thank everyone who came out to support the Groundbreaking Ceremony today, especially our speakers, Damita and Keshawn from Family Focused Recovery, Senator Royce Duplessis, Daniella Neveles-McGrath from Humana Foundation, Nick Albares, our VP of Strategic Development, Chuck Viator, our VOA SELA Board Chair, Karen Stubbs from the Office of Behavioral Health, Dr. Torin Sanders from Sixth Baptist Church, Rick Born from Humana, and Robert Rhoden from the VOA Development 2 Board who shared inspiring, heartfelt stories. You all made this event so special to us, and left enough inspiration to fuel the ENTIRE city of New Orleans! Additionally, thank you to Humana Foundation for serving as the primary investor for this FFR project, and for spending time with us this week to learn more about our story and mission.

Check out our Family Focused Recovery program on Facebook, or learn more about the services they provide.

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