ST PAUL, Minn — At ANEW Chemical Health Services in St. Paul, the women know what it means to begin again.
"The staff, the groups, the women... they bring us together and just shed light into my life. Show me that there's a better life besides out on the street and using," said Emily Zimit.
Zimit lives in a sober house nearby and comes to the center three days a week. ANEW owns five sober homes, leases another and also has an 11-unit apartment building.
Michaelene Colestock bought her first sober home in 2009. By 2018, she was running five sober living homes with 32 residents and around 20 kids while also holding a full-time job as director of the Regions Hospital Alcohol and Drug Abuse Program.
Colestock took a leap of faith and stopped running other treatment centers to open her own. She now is the owner, founder and CEO of ANEW Chemical Health Services.
"What we're really noticing is there are specific needs that the women in our program have, and we're trying to fill the gaps and remove the barriers," Colestock said. "I noticed people needed a safe place to live, so I started sober housing. Then I realized they need a place for their kids to go, too. So alright, let's have kids at sober housing."
Colestock said a main barrier for women seeking treatment is not having a safe person who can watch their kids.
"You don't have to have children to come to us. But a lot of women do because we are one of the only sober housing providers in the state that allows children to live full-time with their moms," Colestock explained.
Last September, ANEW Health and Wellness Clinic opened its doors in the same office complex. Colestock said most people going through treatment also need long-term mental health services.
"We realize that recovery is a long-term, lifetime issue that people need to manage like any other disease," Colestock said.
But Colestock said her clients also ran into barriers trying to access mental health services, including wait lists. Having the clinic allows them to get clients in right away, "striking when the iron's hot."
Then in May, ANEW Childcare Center opened its doors - also in the same complex.
"Mostly because when women were coming into our outpatient program and our sober housing, they needed to set up childcare so they could start the treatment services" Colestock said.
According to Colestock, about 99% of ANEW's clients are on public assistance. But that also means her clients are at times waiting 30-60 days for child care assistance to come through.
"We have to be able to get these women into services faster, which meant we have to get their kids into childcare faster. So now we can just move them over to our childcare center. We can work on the application process for childcare assistance while they're there and then we'll get reimbursed from the county later. So for us it's more about removing the barrier, providing the service right away, and then figuring out later how we're going to get paid for it to support the staff and the infrastructure at that facility," Colestock said.
ANEW also allows moms to bring their babies, 6 months and under, to group therapy.
"They can really continue the bonding experience kind of all day long and nobody else does that," Colestock said.
Colestock's dog and pups belonging to staff members can often be found interacting with clients at the treatment center and clinic.
"ANEW is the best program I've ever been in and I've been in six other treatments," shared Zimit, who has been sober since January. "It's been successful for me and it holds you accountable for everything you do."
Colestock recognizes that their clients' journeys may not end with them.
"It might start with us and it might end with three other local treatment centers. Our goal and our hope is that recovery happens. Whether it happens here or any of the other treatment centers," Colestock said.
Zimit said her four-year-old daughter is currently in child protective services.
"My daughter got taken away and I'm almost getting her back now because of being here," said Zimit, adding that she is also hoping to soon move her 14-year-old son into her place.
"It's an amazing place," Zimit said. "I love it here."
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