Recovery looks like this
WEBSTER CITY — From a young age, drinking alcohol was normal for Todd Taylor because his grandfather owned a bar.
Taylor was about 12 when he first started drinking.
Unfortunately, that translated to addiction, and that addiction, he told an audience last week, eventually led him to CFR.
“I’ve been through the recovery houses, so I kind of know how it is,” he said. “I’ve battled addiction my whole life.”
Taylor, of Fort Dodge, spoke at the open house hosted by Community & Family Resources Wednesday as it introduced Webster City to its new 14-bed men’s recovery suite in the 500 Fair Meadow Drive building the agency bought from Hamilton County early in 2024. It is expected to begin accepting clients later this fall.
“It was just normal to start drinking at a young age,” Taylor told the visitors gathered in CFR’s conference room. “And that progressed until I was a teenager, when drugs were offered to me. They just kind of overwhelmed me and took my life over.”
But with help, he found he was determined to not let addiction define him.
“I’ve been in and out of institutions, prisons, jails. In between, I’ve always been an active member of the community. Good job, you know? But I just could never keep that monkey off my back long enough to get my mind right, and so one of the things I like about this place is the recovery house.”
While a residential recovery unit is new to Webster City, it has been an established service in Fort Dodge, where Taylor said he became a familiar face.
“I went through treatment. It started a spark in my head where I know all the right from wrong. You know what I mean? But through all the years it’s just instilled in my brain to do things a certain way — and that’s not the right way — and it took me probably a year before my mental capacity changed, or I knew how to talk, to communicate with people, how to do my job right. How to just do all this, all this normal stuff that people take for granted,” he said.
CFR’s residential recovery unit gave him the time, and a place, to work on himself.
“It’s because it was what I needed. I kind of work better when there’s somebody over me. You know what I mean?” he said. “Even my family knew that that’s where I needed to be because I do function better with somebody kind of poking me. And that’s what this recovery house is all about, giving guys a chance to slowly, not just get pushed out the door, you know? And I love that I could never have made it without CFR’s help, without my friends’ help, the community.
“Now I’m an active member of the community. I have a great job. I’ve helped other guys get jobs and now they’re active members of the community. They got jobs, houses, you know, starting families, all because of one spark that I got here at the CFR.”
According to CFR, residential recovery is also referred to as a “halfway house,” a place “where they may gain additional personal freedom and more responsibility. Client recovery is reinforced and strengthened while they hold jobs and prepare to rejoin their families and communities. Individuals participate in five or more hours of programming each week.”
In Webster City, the new unit encompasses a large communal kitchen and dining hall, a light-filled great room, and several outdoor spaces.
Though CFR has referred to the unit as a halfway house, it is not to be interpreted as a halfway house as in the penal system. CFR serves clients whose impetus to recover comes from within.
“Community and Family Resources is dedicated to proactively assisting individuals, families, and communities achieve healthy behavior and lifestyle through advocacy, prevention, and treatment of substance use, problem gambling, and mental illness,” according to its web presence. “We have locations in Ames, Boone, Clarion, Des Moines, Fort Dodge, Humboldt, Iowa City, Marengo, Rockwell City, Tipton, Washington, and Webster City.”