Meet Tonya Hankins | Founder and Executive Director

We had the good fortune of connecting with Tonya Hankins and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Tonya, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Hanani House was founded in 2019 in response to the great need for women’s recovery housing for those who are seeking long term recovery from substance use disorder (SUD). At the time, I was working as a substance use specialist for a large treatment provider in St. Louis. The women on my caseload were attending outpatient treatment, many of whom were in Drug/DWI court and facing the possibility of losing custody of their children and spending more time in prison if they did not maintain their sobriety, yet they were struggling to stay sober. As I worked with these women, it became clear that most were homeless or living in unsafe, unhealthy homes with substance users. It is nearly impossible to gain and maintain sobriety under these conditions. Safe and sober living environments is a critical need in being able to address the issues of early recovery. During this time, I learned through trying to get women placement in recovery housing that men’s recovery houses outnumber women’s 3:1 and that many of the housing providers required 21 days sober in order to enter into the housing program. The barriers that people face in early recovery are vast, but recovery housing is at the

As a woman in long term recovery from substance use disorder, I realized that if we are going to help people get stabilized in early recovery, having access to safe sober living is a must for so many of the women who are in treatment for SUD. When I approached the vice president of the treatment provider I was working for and asked why they had recovery housing for men but not women, the person responded, “Because women’s recovery housing is too hard.” My internal response was, “Challenge accepted.”

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
The mission of Hanani House is to provide women in 12 step recovery from Substance Use Disorder (SUD) with recovery housing, comprehensive Recovery Support Services, community resources, and 12 step recovery support to help build solid foundations of recovery and success. We are a nationally accredited recovery residence that is a contracted recovery housing provider for the Missouri Department of Mental Health. But from the beginning vision to where we are today has been, to say the least, and extremely difficult endeavor. Endless hours of researching, networking, and planning are required to lay the foundation for any organization or business’s success. It requires dedication, commitment, the willingness to plan, execute, fail, re-evaluate, and re-plan over and over again, and above all, faith that (much like God’s relentless pursuit of us) our relentless pursuit to advance the mission of helping others recovery from substance use disorder will, without a doubt, prevail.

Getting to the point where we had a recovery house and were accepting applications for residency was a two year process. Once we had the recovery house, DMH funding and residents, we learned that running a recovery housing program was the real work. Recovery requires much more than just abstaining from drugs and alcohol. Providing a safe and sober living environment was just the beginning. Connection, support, continued sobriety, employment and quality of life are all significant outcomes for people in recovery from Substance Use Disorder. Transportation, past felony convictions, and mental health factors all represent significant barriers to individual success in early recovery. Hanani House has worked tirelessly to develop our programs to meet the individual needs of our residents and identify the barriers to potential success. We created a comprehensive Recovery Support Program that provides outpatient and individual SUD counseling, develops recovery goals and creates relapse prevention plans for each resident. We also created an in-house Employment Program to help women become immediately self-supporting despite employment barriers. People in early recovery have many obstacles to overcome and Hanani House is committed to providing programs that help women achieve long term recovery.

Our organization is in its fourth year of operation and plans are underway to open and operate a second women’s recovery house for eight women. We believe that together, WE can do great things!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Our recovery residence is located in the newly renovated town of Augusta, Missouri. There are multiple old-town antique shops and art galleries to enjoy. The Katy Trail runs right through the town and offers plenty of bike rental places for an afternoon of hiking, biking and exploring. Nearby Washington, Missouri offers an old-town riverfront city experience with coffee shops, shopping and amazing restaurants.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Honestly, my Shoutout is entirely owed to God, who so graciously and lovingly called me back from a life doomed to self destruction and chaos by my 20 year addiction to drugs and alcohol. I was in the grips of a deadly, progressive disease and on the verge of losing everything. My addiction destroyed everything in its path and made it impossible for me to love anyone more than I loved the effects produced by substance use. I was dying and I was losing my will to live. I was desperate and hopeless. I needed a power greater than the power of drugs and alcohol that bound me, and I found the power to restore my life in the loving embrace of my God.

August 20, 2006 is when God’s grace stepped in and rescued me from the prison of my own making. I have not had a drink or drug since then. It is my life’s true honor and mission to help others find what God has so graciously given me. Hanani House is His vision of showing women what He is willing to give to them in exchange for their old way of living. God’s love and mercy are limitless, and so are the possibilities in a new life of recovery.

x

Website: https://www.hananihouse.org/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hananihouse/?hl=en

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonya-hankins-hanani-house/

Twitter: @HananiHouse

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hananirecoveryhouse