What is Hope Village? Meet the Amazing Lucy Hall

I’m pleased to welcome, Lucy Hall, substance abuse counselor, author, and creator of the documentary, Hope Village!

Can you briefly introduce yourself to those that don’t know you?

My name is Lucy Hall. I’m a person in long-term recovery. What that means is that it’s been 30 years since I’ve needed to use any mind or mood-altering substances.

Because of that, I’m a great mom. I’m an awesome employer. I am the CEO and founder of an organization called Mary Hall Freedom House, which will celebrate 24 years on June 1st. I’m excited that I get to be a hope dealer.

My product is hope, and my goal is to get people linked up to recovery and not focus on addiction. I want to highlight recovery because that’s the way we change the stigma. People don’t grow up wanting to be an addict. It’s something that is a chemical imbalance.

Just like people don’t want to be a diabetic. People don’t want to have cancer. Nobody wants to be an addict. So we’ve got to shine a different light on recovery and get the focus off of addiction.

A lot of people don’t even know they can get into recovery. When I was using, I didn’t know there was a way out, so I want to show people the way out.

When you were in the midst of your struggles with addiction, what got you through your darkest hours?

 I didn’t think I had a problem. Most people who are alcoholics or addicts don’t think they have a problem. You know, I thought everybody was doing what I was doing. Years had gone by, and I realized the people who graduated from high school with me now had great jobs, were getting married, and had families. I was still doing the same thing I was doing when we graduated.

And I was like, okay, something’s wrong with this. But by then I was in the grips of it and couldn’t say, okay, tomorrow I’m not going to do it. By then, I was into addiction. It was getting darker and deeper. I was using to live and living to use. By the grace of God, my end came by way of, “You have the right to remain silent.”

I knew then that I was not going to jail. I couldn’t imagine someone taking my freedom. That scared me enough to say, “Okay, what are my alternatives?” 

I got arrested. I didn’t have to go to jail. My dad came and got me because it was my first shoplifting offense. 

 When I had to go to the probation officer, she said, “Hey, I need for you to go in the bathroom and pee in a cup so I can see if you’re using drugs.”

I said, “Save the cup because I do use drugs.” And she looked at me like I was crazy cause people didn’t admit it.

But I didn’t know that I was not supposed to use drugs. I didn’t. Nobody educated me. Growing up when I first started smoking marijuana at 15, nobody said, don’t do that because this is what’s going to happen. Around me, people were doing it. And so I was off to the races.

I thank God that he interrupted it by way of, you have the right to remain silent. And that probation officer said to me, so what do you want to do about it?

I said, “What am I supposed to do about it?” She said, “Let me make some phone calls.”

And she made phone calls. It was a Friday. She said, “Do you want to go to treatment?” I said, “Yeah, whatever that means.” And she said, “Good, you can go.”

But I started making excuses cause it was Friday. I wasn’t going Friday. I should go next week. And so she said, yep, your appointment is for Monday.

Friday, I left her office and did everything I needed to do to party like there was no return. Monday, life started over for me. I’ve never had to look back by the grace of God.

You are doing fantastic work with Mary’s Freedom House. What is the program about? Who does it help?

Mary Hall Freedom House started 24 years ago as a place where women could come to get sober a recovery house. But it has sent transformed into a behavioral health program for women, children, veterans, and families. And so it’s quite comprehensive now.

We do still have our signature program, where we have about a hundred beds for women and women with children. We provide residential substance abuse treatment. That’s one component.

But then we realized five years into the journey that a lot of these women didn’t have safe places to return to. The support systems where they came from weren’t conducive to recovery. So we started what we call transitional housing and supportive housing programs. Today, we house about 250 women and about 80 children in seven different types of programs around the state of Georgia.

We have emergency housing, which is the Donna Center. People can access safety 24/7 because we don’t close. If it’s 11 o’clock tonight, you can get help. If it’s two o’clock on Sunday, you can get help and come out of the darkness and begin the process. So that’s our emergency, low-barrier housing.

Then you have substance use treatment.

For a woman who has children, who are homeless, and can document that homelessness, we have homeless housing programs. We have permanent supportive homeless housing programs for women and women with their children. There are two different programs for female veterans, single and then female veterans with their children. We have transitional housing for them.

We have recovery housing and residential treatment. Then you have independent living. At the end of a woman’s stay, she can have a roommate and live independently in the community. They can pay for the unit and be able to live there for a year or two so that they can save money and then spread their wings and fly. So that’s the continuum of services.

We provide childcare. We’re licensed for childcare. We also offer medical care, employment services, and mental health services. Also, we have wraparound services so that you can get what you need in a community.

People are successful when they’re connected. We create a community. That’s what I’m most proud of at Mary Hall. Freedom House is a sense of community.

Even in our current climate, the women say to me, they’re so grateful that they have a place to be, as opposed to being out there in the street.

One young lady said, “I came in the day before the pandemic and the shelter in place order. I know I’d be dead either from COVID or overdose had I stayed out there.”

Now you have a documentary, “Hope Village” and the book “Hope Dealer.” Tell us why you decided to make a movie and write a book.

I met this great guy called Ri-Karlo Handy ten years ago when he was working for BET, one of the networks.

He was filming the Keyshia Cole show at the beginning when reality TV first came out. He was producing that show. I met him because we were on one of the episodes that centered around her mom.

And he never forgot that. He always tells me he never forgets when they filmed that day. Everybody that was on the set cried because of the impact that it had on them. We all know somebody that’s addicted. We all know somebody, whether it’s an arm’s length away, a stone’s throw away, or a county away. 

All of us know somebody who knows somebody who has a problem with addiction.

And so that’s why we need to hold up the light of recovery. Ricardo reached out to me when his dad struggled with his own addiction. We talked, and he said, “Lucy, I would love to do your story.”

I would love to put it out there so that people can grasp recovery and know that there’s a way out. I said, “If it’s going to help people, I’m willing to let you do it.”

So he did a documentary. He did my life story and followed a couple of the women through the program. He told their story and journey in recovery. May is mental health awareness month, so the movie premiere is this week.

You can get all the information from www.hopevillageproject.com.

We’ve written Hope Dealer so that readers can get some tools to support people in recovery and to know what to do and how to do it. That’s what the book is all about.

What are a few suggestions that you have for parents or any other family member who’s concerned about their loved one?

First, recognizing that it is a disease and that nobody chooses to be an addict. That’s the first thing. And it is then realizing that there are resources available. That there are many roads to recovery.

It’s not just one. Everybody doesn’t necessarily have to come to treatment. There are so many recovery options in our community. 

They’re called RCOs, and they are in the community to support their peers. They’re peer-driven peer-run. A lot of times, what I see is especially younger people whose parents have not acknowledged their mental health. As a result, they started using drugs to manage their mental health.

By the time they do show up at places like Mary Hall Freedom House, they realize that it’s mental health that needs to be treated. 

Addiction is self-medication so that a person can function. And so we need to not be in denial about mental health issues. You see your children every freaking day. You know that something’s going on. Whether it’s bipolar, depression, or schizophrenia, whatever it is, get the help that’s needed.

And I say this wholeheartedly. I’m not somebody who wants to medicate and have your kid coming back to a doctor’s office, paying a whole lot of money every week or every month. There are services to help them learn how to live happy, joyous, and free, even with a mental illness.

We need to connect people to the available resources. I always tell people, if you get to Mary Hall, Freedom House, we will help you, you know so that you can call us.

It’s Mary Hall Freedom House.org. Our number is (770) 642-5500. You are more than welcome to give us a call. We will help you.

Any final thoughts about Hope Village?

The thing about it is I remember my dad said to me, “I just want you to get your life together before I leave this earth.”

And I always think about that because of my dad. God rest his soul. He did get to see me get my life together and begin this program, Mary Hall, Freedom House before he left this earth. I always love to tell parents first and foremost to remember the power of prayer. But also the power of connecting with other people. Don’t suffer alone. Reach out whether it’s for you or them. There is Alanon, for you, and AA or NA or CA for them. 

There are so many support groups out there. As I said, there are many paths to recovery. You’ve got to realize that it’s not only the person that’s doing the drugs and alcohol who needs help. So do you. Don’t go through it alone. 

If you want to get the book Hope Dealer, there are ways in there that help people get connected and stay connected. 

About Lucy:

Lucy Hall’s mother died of alcoholism when she was six. The impression her mother left in her life inspired Lucy to reach out to women who suffer from addiction and women with children. She desired to help bridge the gap from troubled lives and help women become independent and self-sufficient. Today, her dream has become a reality with Mary Hall Freedom House (MHFH), named in memory of her mother. Through a community of sisterhood, Lucy coaches women to free themselves from the past and live every day for the future. Over 10,000 women and children have achieved recovery through Mary Hall Freedom House since founded in 1996; by empowering them to end the cycle of generational addiction, poverty, and homelessness. A native New Yorker, Lucy graduated from Shorter University with a degree in Human Services and holds national credentials as a substance abuse counselor. Lucy is the recipient of many awards that include: the 2002 Robert Wood Johnson Community Health Leader Award, the 2003 Mary Magdalene Award, 2003 Atlanta Magazine “Women Making a Mark” Award, the 2006 Turner Broadcasting Systems Pathfinder Award, the 2008 Leadership Sandy Springs Award, the 2010 All-State Statue to Greatness Award, the 2011 City of Sandy Springs MLK Award, the 2013 Restorative Justice Center “Community Warrior Award,” the 2014 Turknett Leadership Character Award, and the 2016 Heart of Giving Award from Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Lucy currently lives in Atlanta, GA, and is the proud mother of two children, Mary and Christian.