Amy Winehouse Foundation Opens Home for Women Recovering from Drug Addiction

Five years after her tragic death, Amy Winehouse's legacy lives on through helping others

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July marked the fifth anniversary of Amy Winehouse‘s tragic death due to accidental alcohol poisoning. Now the charitable organization that bears her name is paying tribute to the late singer by helping others.

On Monday, the Amy Winehouse Foundation opened Amy’s Place, a recovery house that seeks to help female addicts transition into post-rehab life. In addition to counseling, the East London facility will offer group exercise courses and relapse prevention groups for up to 16 women.

The foundation cites the lack of female-only facilities as the motivating factor in opening Amy’s House. “There are about six women-only rehabs, and beyond that, there’s an even greater paucity of women-specific recovery housing beds,” the foundation’s special project director Dominic Ruffy told the Guardian. “There is only one other women-only recovery house in London and it’s only a four-bed with a six-month waiting list.”

Amy’s Place integrated suggestions given by a number of female addicts consulted for the project. “They wanted to ensure they were either safe and away from ex-partners, or safe from their issues around co-dependency, around men … It was evident there was a clear need and the women would feel more secure in an environment [where] they knew they weren’t going to be troubled by aspects from their past.”

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Duffy, who has gone through recovery himself, maintains that most challenging part of the process is the reintegration into society. “Our experience shows if you give people an extended period of time post-traditional rehabilitation treatment, you will improve the percentage of people who stay clean [in the] long term. We have a saying in recovery that the drink and drugs aren’t our problem, it’s living life clean and sober.”

Learn more about Amy’s Place here.

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