A Beautiful Day to Save Lives - A Keystone Hall Story

An Individual’s Success Story

The staff at Harbor Homes first met Tanya in a moment of crisis. She was sitting on the sidewalk outside Hillsborough Superior Court in Nashua. A young woman struggling with alcohol and substance misuse, she had spent time in jail and a psychiatric unit after an attempted overdose. She was living in her car, emaciated and desperate for support.   

“I was on a mission to kill myself, and it wasn’t working,” said Tanya. 

Like so many people we meet, Tanya’s case was complicated. It was not just about finding her a place to live. She was need of a wide range of services. One of the greatest challenges in addressing homelessness is that to truly solve the problem, organizations like ours must help each individual with the underlying problems that brought them to homelessness in the first place. For Tanya, that started with Harbor Homes’ crisis housing and getting her on the road to recovery. 

Tanya’s Journey 

Tanya began her journey when she entered into Keystone Hall, a residential and outpatient treatment, prevention, and recovery support services center, and met with caseworkers who coordinated additional treatment. Because years of substance abuse had caused Tanya to lose many of her teeth, Harbor Care Health and Wellness Center provided her with dentures, helping to restore her confidence. Her support team helped her get into the Transitional Living Program, where she was able to stay sober and get her driver’s license back, as well as earn her GED and LNA license. 

Upon graduating from Keystone Hall, she found more permanent housing through Harbor Homes. There she met the man who would become her husband and they now have a 6-year old son and a 19-month old daughter. 

A Helping Hand Through Trying Times 

Tanya’s path to sobriety and a new life, like so many, had moments where she thought about leaving and returning to drug misuse. While she was at Keystone Hall, her boyfriend died from a drug overdose, challenging her own sobriety.  

“I honestly don’t think I would have gotten through that time without the staff and former clients,” said Tanya. “I really wanted to leave.”  

Helping Others at Keystone Hall

Tanya now works at Keystone Hall, using what she learned during her recovery to help others. She is especially watchful of the new mothers, she says, because she remembers that postpartum depression is a powerful trigger that can propel women back to drugs. 

In her off-hours, Tanya is working toward becoming a social worker and Licensed Alcohol and Drug Counselor. She recently passed her Certified Recovery Support Worker exam and is in the process of obtaining her associate degree in human service. 

Tanya’s story is an individual success story but also emphasizes how collaborative and coordinated services for homelessness, mental health, drug treatment, and community health can address its many challenges. Harbor Care, formerly known as the Partnership for Successful Living and its affiliates work together with state and local agencies on a case-by-case basis. It’s a service model Tanya says that helped her get to where she is today, 

“It’s important for people to understand how Keystone Hall works in the community, in concert with different community agencies,” said Tanya. “All these organizations partnered together to get me the help I needed.”