Wine Country Times

Women’s Recovery Services (WRS) is a nonprofit organization based in Sonoma County, California, helping families heal after being broken by a mother’s addiction.

According to their website, the organization’s goal is to break the cycle of addiction for women in a safe, healthy setting, helping neglected children get their mother back and allowing them to live together while learning life skills necessary to become responsible community members.

The nonprofit offers a 120-day residential program for pregnant and parenting women, as well as their kids, the organization’s website states. A children’s program and an eight-month after care program are also available, as well as up to two years for families to live in a transition home while getting back on their feet.

All WRS's clients are women, 90% of which are mothers and approximately 85% of the children WRS serves are under the age of 5, according to the group’s website.

Diane Madrigal became the executive director of WRS Dec. 16, 2021. Prior to joining WRS, Madrigal provided 20 years of service to Sonoma County, she told Wine Country Times. First as the program development manager for Valley of the Moon Children’s Home, to the last eight years as the “substance use disorder and community recovery section manager” working with SUD community services and SUD contractors.

After retiring from Sonoma County in 2021, she filled in as an interim director, and was doing such a good job she was offered a permanent position, she said.

"WRS has served women with alcohol and drug addiction issues for over 45 years in Sonoma County," Madrigal told Wine Country Times. "Our program is unique in that women who are pregnant and or parenting can enter treatment with their children (in most cases), thereby removing one of the barriers to treatment."

"The program offers a 90-day or a 120-day program for women to address their alcohol and other drug addiction issues,” Madrigal explained. “It requires a commitment to sobriety and ability to address the issues presented. Women with drug/alcohol addiction may have co-occurring medical, dental, and psychiatric conditions requiring immediate treatment. Frequently the mothers have neglected their children’s medical and dental needs as well."

Once they are in the program, WRS works to meet their immediate needs of shelter, food, safety and health care to address and decrease the negative health impacts of addiction, Madrigal said. The organization also works to provide transportation and connect women and children to community resources to address their physical, and emotional health and mental health, often for the first time in their lives.

"After stabilizing the mother and children’s basic needs and immediate medical needs, we then intervene in the mother's self-destructive lifestyle to effect a long-term change to her way of living," Madrigal said. "WRS shows mothers and children the way to a new life by addressing the root causes of chronic addiction, providing education about substance dependence, trauma, and ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences) and how-to live-in recovery, providing parenting classes and teaching life skills to become independent as well as establishing community support."

Women who complete the program can apply for a transitional housing program where they can continue a step-down service as an outpatient with aftercare for eight months with housing up to two years depending on their plan, Madrigal added.

"When women and their children enter the WRS treatment program, they are welcomed into a safe, supportive, non-judgmental environment that provides all their needs as it relates to food, shelter, safety," Madrigal said.