A working farm in North Royalton, Ohio, treats addiction with a job, a home and reasons to get up every morning. Ellsworth Acres is run by the Briermost Foundation and teams sober living for women with paid agricultural work. The women who complete its program describe the experience in terms that sound more like a second life.
Ellsworth Acres in Action
Ellsworth Acres is a certified recovery housing provider funded in part by the Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services Board of Cuyahoga County. Women in recovery from drugs and alcohol live together in the farmhouse and tend to the rows of Italian peppers, eggplant, celery, pumpkins, dahlias, sunflowers and gourds alongside chickens.
The farm is a paid job training program. Founder Erin Helms notes that many people early in recovery have debt and an unpaid training program of 30 days or six months is something they simply can’t afford. Residents learn workplace skills like time management and being in a team. Weekly house meetings and required recovery meetings, which residents can choose from any pathway that fits their communal life.
There’s also a housing incentive aimed at education. Through grant funding, residents enrolled full time in school pay no rent for as long as they’re in school.
Farm Life
Helms chose agriculture because it mirrors recovery and even holistic therapy.
“You don’t plant a seed and the next day have a cucumber. The same with recovery. You’re not gonna walk into your first meeting and feel like a brand new person, but you make one friend, and then the next meeting, you make another friend.”
That patience has paid off for many. Farm manager Renee Rosenbaum came to Briermost as a resident after other sober living homes failed to stick for her. She’s now been with the farm for five years and spends her days teaching newer residents.
“They believed in me,” she said of staffers who helped her explore her interest in agriculture.
Women Rebuilt Their Lives There
Taneisha Clark spent 30 years in addiction before arriving at the farm. She’s now three years sober and manages a recovery house. Clark shares her story with women on their first day. “That’s where I was born at.”
Elizabeth Bongorno struggled with sobriety for more than two decades and moved in and out of Briermost’s homes several times. She overdosed more times than she can count but has been sober since 2021. Bongorno now manages a Woodrow Project recovery house in Lakewood.
Helms herself is in recovery and has been sober since August 2008 after a finance career. Her own experience shapes the program’s philosophy: “Acceptance is the answer to all of my problems.”
Recovery Housing
Sober living homes provide housing where residents practice daily responsibility while attending recovery meetings and outpatient care.
Families watching a loved one cycle through relapse know the signs of addiction. Programs like Briermost’s keep a door open by welcoming residents back after relapse rather than closing them out.
Local Resources in The Buckeye State & Beyond
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