A Residential Shelter for Adolescent Drug Addicts

Last week on the news, a Dallas Metroplex high school was spotlighted again for an exponential rise in drug use among its students. It is the same high school where several cheese heroin deaths were reported a few years ago.

One of the agencies that responds to this crisis is Nexus Recovery Center. It has specifically targeted this type of drug use, so common among adolescents – and particularly adolescent females. And within this population are a significant number of adolescent mothers.

The impact on children of young mothers debilitated by drugs is beyond the imagination of most of us – but more and more frequently the court system is sending these girls and their impacted children to Nexus Recovery Center for long-term treatment and care. At Nexus, the girls detox, live in dorms with one another, share their life stories in counseling sessions with other adolescent women in the same circumstance, and receive parenting classes as well attending school on campus 5 days a week for 6 hours per day. Their children attend a nearby elementary school.

The Adolescent Residential program is based on the 12 steps and addresses issues such as anger management, decision-making, healthy relationships and socialization, relapse prevention, physical fitness, and life skills training.

Within this structured and stable environment, Dance to Live offers 4 classes of movement therapy each month, and we have been doing that for the past 6 years. Our certified dance therapist works with the adolescents and their children in separate classes to inspire health, physical endurance, self-esteem and confidence through different types of movement. Feelings which are impossible to put into words can be expressed and released through movement.

One hundred percent of your donation is used to provide services. We are very, very grateful for your support.  Our goal is to give to each child, for their future, the tool of movement as a means of expression. Thank you!