The Dandelion Hive’s recovery housing is an all-gender LGBTQIA+ recovery house. We understand that everyone has their own boundaries and specific needs. We work together to achieve a higher sense of safety by being mindful of everyone’s boundaries as each resident works towards their own personal growth. We require residents to keep prescribed medications that have an elevated potential for abuse in a lock box with the house manager for daily administration. We maintain a high standard of recovery housing by being a VARR (Virginia Area of Recovery Residences) certified recovery residence. We provide life-saving Naloxone and CPR/first aid training as needed. We utilize relapse prevention planning to help residents stay on track. We encourage residents to seek additional medical or psychiatric care as needed with no negative consequences or judgment. We have a zero-tolerance policy for sexual and gender-based harassment, abuse, and violence.

We honor all intersections of identities within the LGBTQIA+ community. We understand the importance of one’s true name and pronouns. We will refer people by their actual name and pronouns, regardless of what is on their legal documentation. We denounce racism, colorism, misogyny, ableism, transphobia, homophobia, and white supremacy culture. We continuously work to make our services accessible to anyone who needs them and to provide accommodations within our abilities for residents living with disabilities and co-occurring conditions. We understand neurodivergence in its various forms and work to accommodate residents as much as is possible within a recovery house atmosphere. We know that recovery is not linear. We work individually with each resident to find out what they need and how we can best support them on their recovery journey.

In The Dandelion Hive’s recovery housing, you will gain the tools to live with peace and purpose alongside other residents in recovery. Residents participate together in recovery meetings, a weekly house meeting, workshops, fun activities, and other recovery programming. Everyone learns how to be supportive of each other through practicing communication and living skills. Residents learn how to utilize various principles of recovery to engage or re-engage with their community.

Recovery cannot be maintained without accountability. Each resident finds and regularly meets with a recovery mentor or sponsor in the community. Each resident must attend recovery meetings regularly. Everyone attends a weekly house meeting/check-in, where we hold space to check in with each resident about their recovery and their struggles. Residents actively participate in their own life by setting and achieving work or educational goals and participating in household weekly chore rotations and daily responsibilities. Residents are held accountable to their recovery commitment through regular drug screenings.

In our recovery housing, residents find recovery support through conversations with their house manager, our staff, and their fellow residents. Residents become connected to the recovery community in Richmond through actively participating in the recovery program(s) that best fits them. Each resident works with a staff member to write an individualized recovery plan that outlines their specific recovery needs, triggers, and supports. If a resident has co-occurring issues, we will help you identify and get connected to those essential support(s). We can provide you with a list of LGBTQIA+ affirming resources in the area. We have a covered lockable bike rack space and can help provide a bike for transportation purposes. We can also help residents navigate Medicaid to schedule rides to and from appointments. We provide certain toiletries to the house and have a selection of personal toiletries available for any resident who needs them.

The structure of a recovery house helps residents adjust to living a stabilized life in recovery. Residents learn or reconnect to life skills such as working cooperatively with others, keeping their commitments, and maintaining a safe and clean home environment. Residents are expected to adhere to the standards of cleanliness, respect, recovery, and engagement. New residents go through a 30-day probationary period, after which they will be given privileges like overnight passes and a later curfew. Residents work together to keep the house clean by completing daily and weekly chores as assigned. All residents are expected to seek employment and then maintain a job or work on their education/life skills, unless they are new in the house and actively attending IOP and engaged in other recovery-based activities. We have a program outline created from our lived and working experiences that takes residents through the process of learning how to achieve stabilized autonomy in recovery.

The goal of recovery housing is to stay sober and to grow in the ways that are meaningful and important to the resident. Everyone comes in with a variety of circumstances and challenges. Residents will continue to work on recovery and life skills while in the house so that they progress towards their goals. The ultimate goal is to grow into the aspects of themselves that are necessary for residents to be able to maintain a sober life after they move on from residency with us. We all continuously grow as a community, as human beings, and as persons in recovery.