From Recovery to Service: How Lived Experience Brings Hope at Pines Family Campus 

After more than 10 years in recovery, volunteer Lisa Toor helps pregnant women and mothers at Pines Family Campus see that a different future is possible. 

Ten years ago, Lisa Toor was close to losing everything. 

Addiction had placed her career, her family and her freedom at risk. She lost her nursing license and faced prescription fraud charges that could have sent her to prison. The people who loved her could see where her life was heading, even when Lisa was not yet ready to fully see it herself. 

In 2016, Lisa’s father-in-law and brother-in-law took her to Bridges of Hope for treatment. Her husband and others close to her had already urged her to get help. Eventually, she said yes. 

Lisa completed the six-month program that August. When she returned home, her family asked only one thing of her: 

“The only thing that we want you to do is just give back to the community.” 

She has spent the decade since keeping that promise. 

Today, Lisa has been in recovery for more than 10 years. She has rebuilt her career, restored relationships with her family and devoted herself to helping other women believe that they can rebuild their lives, too. One of the places where she does that is Pines Family Campus, VOA Southeast’s residential substance use disorder treatment center for pregnant women and mothers. 

Lisa did not receive treatment at Pines Family Campus. She comes as a volunteer, carrying something that cannot be taught in a textbook: the lived experience of addiction, treatment, accountability and long-term recovery. 

“I didn’t think I could do what I’ve done. I just keep going.” 

The Challenge Facing Women and Families 

For pregnant women and mothers facing substance use disorder, the decision to seek treatment can carry enormous fear. Recovery may require confronting grief, damaged relationships, legal or employment consequences and the uncertainty of what life will look like without substances. 

For mothers, the stakes extend beyond their own health. Addiction can affect their children, their ability to maintain stable housing and employment, and the relationships they most want to protect. Treatment is not simply about stopping the use of drugs or alcohol. It is about creating the conditions for a woman and her family to begin again. 

That is the work of Pines Family Campus. Through residential treatment, recovery resources, accountability and a supportive community, Pines provides pregnant women and mothers with space to focus on healing while building a healthier and more stable future for themselves and their children. 

Volunteers like Lisa strengthen that environment by showing residents that recovery is not an abstract promise. It is something another woman has lived. 

Recovery Requires Doing the Work 

Lisa speaks plainly about what recovery requires. 

“You have to do the work. If you don’t do the work, it’s not going to work.” 

For Lisa, that work remains part of everyday life. She begins each morning with readings and conversations with other people in recovery. She attends Alcoholics Anonymous and Al-Anon meetings, stays accountable to her sponsor and completes a nightly inventory. 

She has also kept journals for 10 years. Their pages document the fears, struggles and victories of a life being rebuilt. 

“I always tell those girls, ‘Please journal. Write down your experiences every day. Next month, you can go back and look at that book and see how you handled the situation.’” 

Those pages allow Lisa to see progress that may have been difficult to recognize in the moment. They also remind her that recovery is not a finish line she crossed years ago. It is a life she continues to choose and protect. 

“Without AA, I would not be here today. I would not have a job. I would not be alive today.” 

At Pines Family Campus, women are also doing the daily work of recovery. They are learning new ways to respond to difficult emotions, developing healthier routines and beginning to imagine a life that addiction may have made seem impossible. Lisa’s presence helps make that future visible. 

Giving Back What She Received 

Not long after Lisa returned home from treatment, a woman named Wanda came to her door and began taking her to meetings. Wanda encouraged Lisa to lead meetings and connected her with opportunities to serve. 

Lisa went on to sponsor women, serve with the Red Cross, help people in crisis and support AA meetings at Pines Family Campus. For Lisa, service is not separate from recovery. It is part of how she sustains it. 

“To have what you’ve got, you have to give back. You have to pass it on. I have to help another alcoholic who needs help. That’s how I stay sober every day.” 

Every Wednesday, AA volunteers visit Pines Family Campus to meet with residents. Those meetings are especially meaningful during the first 90 days of the program, when women have limited opportunities to leave campus or receive visitors. 

The volunteers do not arrive with easy answers. They share what they have lived and offer guidance grounded in experience. They understand the grief, fear and unfamiliar emotions that can surface when substances are no longer there to numb them. Often, someone in the room has already survived what another woman is facing for the first time. 

That connection is one of the ways Pines creates a community of recovery. Clinical care and residential support matter deeply, but so does the chance to sit across from someone who understands and can say, with credibility, ‘I have been there, and life can get better.’ 

Seeing That Recovery Is Possible 

Sheree Revels, program manager at Pines Family Campus, said lived experience plays a vital role in women’s recovery. 

Women may spend months in treatment and begin to recognize changes in themselves. Even so, it can still be difficult to imagine life beyond the program. Meeting someone who once stood where they are standing can make that future feel real. 

Residents can hear about Lisa’s addiction, legal problems and fear of losing everything. Then they can see her as she is today: in recovery, working, reunited with her family and returning to help others. 

They are not simply being told that recovery is possible. They are seeing it lived in front of them. 

“If somebody else can do this, I can do this.” 

That realization can be powerful. Lisa’s life offers not only a road map, but proof of a better life ahead. It shows that recovery can mean more than surviving without drugs or alcohol. It can mean rebuilding relationships, finding meaningful work and becoming a source of strength for someone else. 

“Even a brief glimpse into another person’s story can encourage someone to keep moving forward through the most difficult parts of recovery.” 

Lisa’s story demonstrates why the full community surrounding Pines Family Campus matters. Treatment creates a foundation, while staff and volunteers offer care, structure, encouragement and meaningful connection—often drawing on their own lived experience. Together, these elements help women move from crisis toward stability and hope. 

Building a Life Beyond Addiction 

Lisa has watched that transformation happen at Pines Family Campus. 

She has seen women find stable employment, purchase homes and return to school. She has watched them rebuild relationships with their children and create families of their own. 

“It’s just nice to see them grow. When you hear their stories and then you see where they are now, it’s amazing.” 

These outcomes do not happen all at once. They begin with a woman choosing treatment, often at one of the most difficult moments of her life. They continue through daily decisions, setbacks, accountability, encouragement and the steady support of people who believe her past does not have to determine her future. 

Lisa’s own past has not disappeared, but it no longer defines her. She once felt compelled to explain her history to everyone she met. Her sponsor reminded her that she did not have to keep introducing herself through the worst things she had done. 

“People are remembering you now for your service work and what you’ve become, not who you were.” 

Each time Lisa walks into a meeting at Pines Family Campus, the women there see more than a volunteer. They see someone who understands where they have been and whose life demonstrates where they can go. 

They see what is possible—and they begin to believe it may be possible for them, too. 

Help a Mother Begin Again 

Women’s recovery requires courage, accountability and a community willing to believe that a person’s past does not have to determine her future. Pines Family Campus provides that community for pregnant women and mothers working to overcome substance use disorder and build healthier, more stable lives for themselves and their children. 

Your gift supports the residential care, recovery resources and supportive environment that make this work possible. It helps ensure that women have a safe place to begin treatment, people who will walk alongside them and opportunities to learn from volunteers like Lisa who know the road firsthand. 

Lisa’s story shows what can happen when a woman receives help, chooses recovery and discovers that her life can still hold purpose. By supporting Pines Family Campus, you can help more women take that first step—and one day become a source of hope for someone else.