An organization that faced community criticism before opening its doors in 2008 has quietly celebrated one year of helping young mothers and drug addicts get on their feet.

So quiet are the day-to-day operations at Lompoc’s Good Samaritan Services facility on West Ocean Avenue that neighbors are surprised to learn that the center has been open since late September 2008.

A nearby business owner once asked Jesse Garcia, program director of the facility’s Another Road detox program, when Good Samaritan would open.

“When I told him we’d been open about eight months already, he could not believe it,” Garcia said.

Pat Brady, who as director oversees all of the Lompoc Good Samaritan programs, said residents had feared that the center and its programs would attract drug dealers and addicts who would loiter and litter the nearby streets with syringes.

“None of those concerns have come to pass. The police have never come out (to respond to a complaint), except when we have had to call them ourselves,” Brady said.

Brady, a Lompoc native, said she invited all concerned residents and business owners in the West Lompoc neighborhood to attend the open houses at the facility, and some did visit.

Some opponents became friends, she said. One of the facility’s most vocal opponents stepped for-ward and volunteered to paint the colorful mural that now graces an entire wall of the daycare center, she said.

Brady said she is relieved that the center has thrived because its programs are vital to the community.

“There is so much need for something like this here in Lompoc,” she said. “I want the community to know that we not only have been good neighbors, but have been quietly going about helping the community.”

The programs offered by Lompoc’s Good Samaritan facility are Another Road, a 14-day drug and alcohol detox; a residential transitional center that focus on pregnant or parenting women; and Turning Point, an outpatient treatment program that also serves the residents in recovery.

Recovery Way Home is a residential program for women with children younger than 5, and operates out of the Ocean Avenue center. Recovery Way Home program can house up to 16 women and their children for a minimum of six months and a maximum of 18 months.

Hope House, the second residential program, is designed for women with children over the age of 5, and utilizes space rented from The First United Methodist Church in Lompoc, Brady said. It can accommodate six people at a time.

Another Road detox, housed in a modular building toward the back of the Ocean Avenue property, is a co-ed program with separate bedrooms for up to six participants. On a recent day, two female participants chatted amiably with Brady, Garcia and a visitor during a brief tour of the living and dining area.

Since it opened, the facility has consistently had four to six people on the waiting list for its programs, Brady said. Most of the clients are ordered into a program by the courts, county mental health or probation officers, but some enter on their own.

“Most of what we see here (involves) meth, but Jesse (Garcia) also deals with lots of addictions to alcohol and opiates,” Brady said.

The administrators and staff hear lots of “horror stories” about meth use, Brady said, adding that “meth just takes hold” of people and controls their lives.

Daycare services are provided for the children of women in residence at Good Samaritan, but the clients are required to make the arrangements themselves, Brady explained. Clients must adhere to a daily schedule of super-vised time with their children, meditation and group counseling services. A public health nurse comes to the center once weekly.

Women learn parenting skills, and to “make the right choices” when it comes to caring for themselves and their children, Brady said. Chores, meal preparation and cleanup are divided among the residents, and  “participants’ days are pretty full.”

Volunteers from the community help organize on-site festivities and

meals during the holiday season, Brady noted. Some evenings are filled with classes, including one on knitting taught by Lompoc City Councilwoman Cecilia Martner. “The residents love it,” Brady said.

Fighting, stealing, use of alcohol or drugs or physically punishing one’s child are grounds for dismissal from the programs, she noted.

Since the Lompoc Good Samaritan facility opened, 75 clients have used the Recovery Way Home, Hope House and Turning Point programs, according to statistics provided by Brady.

Of these 75 clients, 67 were treated at the residential Recovery Way Home and Hope House programs, and eight are outpatient clients in Turning Point. Of the 67 residential clients: 18 are currently in the program;

18 more have successfully finished; 16 clients were dismissed for breaking rules;

12 walked out and three were transferred to another program.

Of the eight outpatient clients, two are currently enrolled; one has completed the program and five did not finish.

Statistics from Another Road detox show that 98 clients have utilized the program since October 2008. Of the 98, 75 were treated for drug addiction; of these, 66 completed the treatment and nine walked out.

Another 23 clients were treated for alcohol addiction; of these, 18 completed treatment and five walked out. Sixty percent of those treated remain clean and sober.

Laurie Jervis is a freelance writer and editor and can be reached at winecountrywriter@ yahoo.com.