New Haven Independent

Ashford, on the left, who has lived, finally, without drugs or drinks since 2005 and Vivian Fripp-Elbert have formed a deep and powerful bond — a bond made from thread. Ashford is one of a dozen women enrolled in a program at the Hill Health Center’s walk-in Dixwell clinic, Village of Power. The women Thursday night celebrated their creative achievements and their ongoing recovery from drug abuse and homelessness - in large part through programs such as “Growing with Sewing,” which Fripp-Elbert, a professional clothing designer, launched three years ago.

They gathered at the Kehler Liddell Gallery in Westville for a fashion show of their works. The evening also featured a poetry reading, a display of larger-than-life African masks they fashioned, and moving testimonials of how they are overcoming larger than life problems: often an onslaught all at once, such as the death of a mother or child and then a downward spiral into addiction.

Now they are struggling to give birth to the version of themselves that was hijacked, often through years of drugs, homelessness, and illness.

At the center of recovery is the sense of family that is engendered at Village of Power, located in the Dixwell offices of the Hill Health Center. Woman after woman credited her success — several even their lives — to Fripp-Elbert and to Sue Feldman (on the right), a visionary social worker with a zany creative streakwho established the program four years ago.

Most of the 100 to 150 clients enrolled in Village of Power classes and groups are clients in psychological or medical recovering clinics elsewhere in town. What is it that Feldman’s walk-in sewing, poetry, mask-making, and music groups contribute to healing?

“Drugs and alcohol ask mask a person’s true identity,” Feldman said. “When people express themselves through any means on any level, it brings out their personal identity. And since they do it through the support of each other, it also has the effect of building community and family.”

And a sense of personal worth and human beauty, the absence of which apparently lets the demons flourish. Certainly Ashford’s testimony corroborated this: “Sue and Vivian and the others let you know they love you. Look at these clothes I made. They made the beauty of who I am come through.”

Sierra Brown (pictured in the middle being hugged and supported by Carol Nelson, on the right, and Carmelita Coardes) is the newest member of Village of Power. She spiraled downward in life after her mother died. One of Village of Power’s case managers, she said, told her they would be her mother.

Village of Power is supported by a $400,000 federal grant and various state grants. Peter Rockholz, deputy commissioner of the state’s Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, who was on hand Thursday night, said the program is worth every dollar.

“With its self help and mutual help and mentoring aspects, this is one of the most creative and successful programs in the state,” he said.

“For those of us involved in the language of recovery, sometimes it comes down to something as simple as: I know what recovery is when I see it,” Rockholz added. “And I saw it and I felt it, how beautiful you are, when I walked into this room.”

With its motto of “each one, teach one,” the sewing classes and other Village of Power activities have the senior students teach the newer ones. More than two dozen women have gone on to get jobs with skills they’ve renewed in the tremendously supportive atmosphere of Village of Power.

Many of the women testified how they had loved sewing as teenagers, but dropped it totally in the fog of drugs and alcohol. “When I walk into the sewing room,” said Pat Caraway, as she modeled a poncho, “it’s like heaven.” She said she was a very angry woman but now she walks away from the small stuff, and she not only sews and teaches other to sew, she’s become adept at fixing the machines as well.

Feldman said that the sense of belonging, sisterhood, joy, and fun keeps the women motivated so they can stick with their less fun psychiatric and medical regimes of healing and recovery.

The garments produced by the women of Village of Power’s “growing through sewing,” as well as all the art and crafts are for sale daily at the Hill Health Center, 226 Dixwell Ave. Sixty percent of everything sold goes to the women to pay for their housing needs, says Feldman, as many of the women are struggling to move out of shelters in their own apartments, where deposits and initial months rent can be a struggle. The remaining 40% of revenue replenishes sewing and other supplies.

To support or for more infocall Sue Feldman at 503-3484

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