Yellowstone Recovery

The Last House on the Block for Over 25 Years

Yellowstone Women’s First Step House is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization generally referred to as Yellowstone Recovery. Our mission is to provide a safe place and a plan of recovery for individuals who suffer from the diseases of drug addiction and alcoholism. For over two decades Yellowstone Recovery has been providing comprehensive addiction treatment services to women and men helping them to reclaim their lives and transition back into being sober and productive members of society. We offer compassionate group and individual treatment to those who are most in need. We give anyone a bed for the night, and provide financial assistance on a sliding scale all the way down to full scholarships.

Financial limitations remain the most insurmountable barrier to individuals seeking treatment for Substance Use Disorders (SUDs), particularly women. In general, women are more likely to experience barriers to treatment including but not limited to lower levels of education, lower rates of employment, and lower income. Additionally, they may have less support from their families as they experience more stigma and discrimination for their addictions. Yellowstone scholarships as many of these women as possible each year but is limited on the number of women we can help based on the donations we can bring in to our scholarship fund. On average we can maintain two full scholarship beds year round but this falls short of the need of the community.

Yellowstone Recovery has over 25 years of experience in bringing recovery to women in need especially those who have been homeless, incarcerated, or have experienced deeper trauma.

Yellowstone Recovery is unique to Orange County as a non-profit organization wholly governed and staffed by women and men in recovery from SUDs, many of whom are successful alumni. As a team we provide our clients with a full program of recovery services that make a difference at every step of the recovery process, from detox to sober living. We have helped over 10,000 individuals find and take the first steps on the path toward sobriety.

To determine the effectiveness of our program Yellowstone uses Embrk software to send monthly surveys and messages of support via text messages to everyone who leaves the program, either successfully as alumni or unsuccessfully as someone we hope to be able to help again in the future. We also use the Embrk platform to reach out to our well-established alumni organization to bring them home for events and holiday celebrations. They attend serving as examples to current residents that recovery is possible and as potential sponsors to help those new to the program through the 12-steps of AA. Despite working with one of the most difficult treatment populations, Yellowstone has an outstanding one-year sobriety rate of 85% among those who complete the program. Yellowstone contributes to the world and our community by reforming criminals, producing safe and sober drivers, and steadfastly reducing homelessness at its source. Yellowstone provides services to 430 individuals on average each year, but is only able to provide scholarship to about 5% of these individuals.

The most urgent need of Yellowstone Recovery is the funding of more beds for scholarships. Our fixed rates to provide a scholarship bed is $60,000 per year per bed. Yellowstone raises the funds annually to provide two beds at this rate to the community but it is not enough. We hope to be able to raise enough funding each year to fully fund a six bed women’s home entirely for scholarship women. Yellowstone staff is works diligently to help find this funding to bring in the $360,000 we need to fully fund this home year round.

For more information on how you can help the women in our community, please contact our Founder and Director, Dr. A.M. ‘Honey’ Thames at 949-678-9000 or sending an inquiry by emailing our fundraising team at fundraising@yellowstonerecovery.com.