a second chance

aubree WiLson shares her poWerFuL eXperience

What is Sister’s Path?

Aubree: Sister’s Path is a program for single mothers who have struggled with addiction and need help to get back on the right track. It is a long-term treatment where single mothers are provided with one of 12 full furnished apartments in a secured building, instructive classes, and anything else to get their families back on their feet. Sister’s Path is a program that I know personally. It helped me and my son so that we now live a productive lifestyle.

I became addicted to meth by the age of sixteen. I always thought I had control over my addiction. When I was twenty-two I gave birth to my son, and kept using drugs. I then realized I had no control over my addiction, and if I didn’t change, I could lose my son or even my life. Sister’s Path gave me an opportunity to grow and become the beautiful woman that I knew I could be! This program gave me a second chance at living.

What makes Sister’s Path different?

Aubree: Sister’s Path is one of the treatments in the area that is a long term treatment. I feel that long term treatments are better and more effective. My personal experience on thirty day treatments is that you get the advice and programs of what you need to do to change your life, but I believe that the long term treatments give you that chance to grow and time to get started on accomplishing your goals. It’s also a longer place to stay sober, to detach from old using friends and to gain a better and strong support system of sober healthy people. I participated in this program for 19 months and learned things I needed to know in order to feel ready and graduate successfully.

What is life like while in Sister’s Path?

Aubree: This program provides the families with curfews that are suitable for the children and mothers, which helps establish a daily routine with structure. The weekday curfew during the school year is 8 pm and the weekend during the school year is 9 pm. During the summer the curfew changes to 9 pm on weekdays and 10pm on weekends. Mothers are responsible for scheduling appointments, classes and other priorities around these times. This helps the families to become more organized.

Sister’s Path provides classes that the mothers can go to, such as parenting classes. Parenting classes were held twice a week for an hour. When I attended, I learned what to feed my son and what not to feed him, ways to discipline, and how to make a structured routine that would be best for my son and me. An example that I learned was to give my child choices: when it’s time for bed, I let my son know it’s time to get ready for bed and ask him, “Do you want to go to bed right now or in five minutes?” That gives him the choice, but I control what I want to happen.

Sister’s path also offered programs that normally single