Recovery Without Walls (RWW) is about to celebrate their 20th year as the only long-term program on Cape Cod providing women treatment for substance abuse and trauma, completely free of charge. Dedicated to helping women heal, Bill Dougherty founded the organization in 2006. He and his wife, Debbie, have been living in Falmouth and working in the substance abuse field of social work for over 40 years. Her guidance led him to start RWW as a reaction to working with different women’s organizations with substance abuse and realizing that there was no real help for them after coming out of treatment.
“You have to understand addiction treatment in Massachusetts,” explained Dougherty. “Up until 14 or 15 years ago if a woman was sentenced by the court for treatment they would end up in Framingham State Prison. There were no places for women to go for treatment unlike men, although that has expanded a lot since. We saw a whole different set of needs that women have, and it was essential to teach women how to invest in their future.”
Dougherty views recovery as a holistic, long-term process that involves building back a woman’s life, identity, and future. “The mission changes year to year and has expanded,” says Dougherty. “We have a high success rate of people retaining recovery and leading much fuller, better lives.” His mission has included securing higher education to ensure bright futures and careers for women, even attaining full financial scholarships to Mount Holyoke College and Smith College in Western Massachusetts. They have also helped with medical expenses, car repair, and housing costs – all of which lift a financial burden for women so they can focus on their recovery.
Recovery Without Walls has a house at 350 Gifford Street in Falmouth that serves as their base for all other treatment programs created specifically for women, including support groups, acupuncture, meditation, and dance therapy. The idea is to calm the nervous system and treat the addiction’s underlying issues, such as anxiety, grief, depression, and sexual trauma, on the path to healing.
Samantha Franco was a client there about five years ago, and in 2018 she started her holistic retreatment program, which was mainly acupuncture paired with meditation. “As a client it was the only thing that made me feel safe and a release of anxiety I had previously turned to alcohol to soothe,” says Franco. She believed in the importance of the work, and wanted to support other women undergoing the program after completing her own. “Bill’s legacy is amazing. I started working for him three years ago, and have seen our program launch since then.”
Franco and Dougherty teamed up to open RWW up to more women, not only with substance abuse issues, but anyone struggling with anxiety and grief from trauma. As a non-profit, the organization relies on the goodwill of donors and fundraising from athletic events for financial support, and The Falmouth Road Race has been a big part of the growth as their largest fundraising effort of the year.
Bill Dougherty has been involved with the road race since the very beginning, serving as the Food Director for 20 years back in the day of the pre-race spaghetti supper. “The very first year there were just five of us who wanted to get together,” says Dougherty. “Tommy Leonard was a friend of mine, and we made baloney sandwiches and gatorade. Soon the 100 person party blossomed into a huge project of feeding 600 people with a large menu. It was one of the greatest experiences in my life and I was able to start my business because of it.”
“I’ve been at every single Falmouth Road Race since,” concludes Bill Dougherty. “54 years later the race got better and I got older.” His relationship with the race has changed but his fondness for it hasn’t – he’s now been directing RWW as one of the charity teams for the past dozen or so years, with Sammy Franco now taking the lead as Team Captain. “In the very beginning years we had 6 women,” says Dougherty. “Now we have between 30 and 45. We have people from every walk of life, many of which have been through the recovery process, are going through it, or are family members or allies supporting these women.”
“Last year was an exceptional year of raising over $60,000,” and this year Recovery Without Walls exceeded their goal with a final number of $68,000. “We’ve been proud to stay in the top 20 in fundraising with one of the smallest budgets, and we hope to keep growing our team every year.”
For more information on Recovery Without Walls, visit their website at https://recoverywithoutwalls.org/
BY OLIVIA DEPUNTE