HOLLAND, Mich. — CJ Dixon has been sober for two years, seven months and two weeks, a milestone she credits to the support she found at the SoBar Recovery Community Center in Holland.
"It gives me a sense of pride of seeing how much I've been able to do in less than three years," Dixon said. "I know that I can keep making positive changes, and I know I can keep going in the direction that I want to go in."
The SoBar Recovery Community Center serves as a safe haven for people in recovery from substance misuse.
"We provide meetings for people, we provide activities to create those community connections for additional support," said Carrie Nyenhuis, SoBar Recovery Community Center director.
Nyenhuis said the center focuses on building connections through center events such as karaoke nights, ping pong, and recovery art classes.
"Everything we do here is free, so you can come in off the streets, you can hang out," Nyenhuis said.
For Dixon, the center provided something she didn't realize she was missing.
"I think that the best thing that SoBar has done for me, honestly, is given me a sense of community, a way to connect with people," Dixon said. "Just having a safe place to come to is so important. And I think that utilizing this place as a tool for that is a really, a really good way to build that confidence in yourself up again."
Now, Dixon is giving back by teaching recovery art classes twice a week, drawing on her own passion for art to help others in their recovery journey.
"I just feel like art is such a good way of showing people that it's a little bit vulnerable. It's okay to not be good at something and still enjoy it," Dixon said. "It's really special for me to be able to show people how to start building that mastery, how to start building up these skills."
Whether participants are creating fairy houses or wooden stick sculptures, Dixon uses her own experiences to support her neighbors in recovery.
"There's no limit to art, there's no way that you have to do it. There's no wrong way. And recovery is kind of the same way," Dixon said.
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