The end of 2009 brought to Nebraska one of the harshest winters in a long time. Beth Robbins managed to survive until not having the proper footwear for walking in the snow led her to the Stephen Center: “I was addicted to meth, as well as being a bipolar alcoholic. Luckily my three kids were with my sister because I was incapable of taking care of them. When I was sent to the shelter, I had never heard about it, and I was scared of asking for help. My age said I was an adult, but inside I was still a scared girl.”
It was then that an employee of the center gave her a pair of shoes. “It was that act of kindness that made me reflect on things. I looked inside of myself, and I felt dirty and ashamed because I thought ‘this woman doesn’t know about the mistakes I’ve made or the type of person I am but she gave me what I needed without asking for anything in return.’ This is why I stayed.”
Robbins began her rehabilitation thanks to the HERO program at the Stephen Center: “I lived there for around 11 months, and I was always showered with love. The model they follow is being implemented in a way that if you want to remain sober, you can really do it. When they took me to AA (Alcoholics Anonymous), which is when I found God.”
The young woman began to make ends meet by getting a job at Stephen Center Thrift, a second- hand store (5128 S 24th St.), where she selected clothing items. The center also provided Robbins with a place to live in, and she managed to recover her family. “Sin I never had any big plans in life, I felt that there was hope because powerful and enthusiastic women encouraged me and trusted in me!”
Robbins is currently part of the team at the Stephen Center where she is the Assistant Director for the shelter. She does not hesitate to share her life story “as well as the story of other women who had found themselves in the same predicament as me until they said ‘I need help.’ I believe that our community does not realize how there’s a real need of helping people with substance abuse problems, especially women. This is an issue that has not been discussed much, and even though we might not know what is going on next door, it is happening, and it is destroying families.”
Because of this Robbins promotes the services of the Stephen Center, which opened its doors back in 1984, a highlight of which is the Pettigrew Emergency Shelter that opened in January 2015: “Our mission is to collaborate with the community, individuals and families so that we can help to conquer problems such as homelessness, addiction, and poverty.”
The shelter itself which provides help for people is the first program of the Center, and it includes an area for men and another for women, as well as four family units. The second program is the Permanent Supportive Housing program with 60 available units that can be rented by those who are in the middle of the transition of securing their own home so that they can succeed after being homeless.
HERO, the program that benefited Robbins, is the center’s third program. It lasts six months with a particular focus on treating addictions. And then there is a recently created fourth program that focuses on young people who suffer from the same problem.
The fifth program is for the used items store where people can buy everything they need for their personal use and for furnishing a home.
“At the Stephen Center, we know that the people who come to our doors manage to overcome many obstacles. We only try to encourage them and shower them with love because a lot of them have never received any love during their whole life,” said Robbins, adding that the center needs volunteers that can help with tasks, as well as donations, “because the people who come here do so with nothing, they have lived under bridges, but if they see that someone cares about them, perhaps they can realize that they deserve to lead a different life.”
Beth Robbins / Assistant Director for the shelter Stephen Center 2723 Q Street Omaha, NE 68107 402.731.0238 ext. 1 Beth.Robbins@stephencenter.org www.stephencenter.org
For Beth Robbins, the calm after the storm has arrived
