Sylmar Home Helps Pave Way to Recovery

In the hallway of a rented Sylmar home, Michelle Lepire found her face in a group photo, and remembered the day when she knew she was an alcoholic.

“It took me a while to realize I was an alcoholic,” Lepire, 25, said. She remembers going through the house that day happily proclaiming the fact to the other women at the Oasis Women’s Recovering Community.

Oasis was founded six years ago by Anjanay Berrocal, who with her husband, Barney Offield, had been in the habit of picking up people on the street, offering them food and a place to stay and finding them a treatment program. But few programs were available for women.

Both were recovering addicts--Berrocal had fought drug addiction for 20 years--and both were working as recovery counselors. When she heard of a home to rent in Sunland, Berrocal jumped at the chance to start her own program.

Of the approximately 600 women who have come to Oasis, now located in Sylmar, most have had hard-core addictions where drunk driving arrests and jail time do not even come close to prompting a desire to change. Only after losing everything and then living on the streets or going through serious withdrawals in jail did these women agree to join Oasis.

Lepire wasn’t accustomed to the hugs and love she was showered with when she first arrived. She said that starting at 20, she was in and out of jail because of drugs, life on the street and the occasional car theft.

“I liked my first night in jail,” Lepire said. “It was exciting. I had never been in anything like that before.”

At 23, her father, with whom she was living in Woodland Hills, told her to find another place to live. Oasis, which she had heard about in jail, would at least be a place to sleep, she thought.

But then she fell into the routine of the house: meals, chores, meditation, meetings. “Take a good look around,” Offield said during one recovery meeting, “because in a year, only three of you will be here.”

Suddenly, Lepire wanted to be one to make it. Now, looking at the picture, she points out eight women--including herself--who are still sober.

When he gave his stern warning on how few would make it, Offield had been citing national Alcoholics Anonymous statistics.

One reason for the Oasis success rate, former residents said, is love, respect and understanding. “You treat the woman like an honest person and she becomes an honest person,” Berrocal said.

But money is what the 17-bed house needs, she said. “It’s a battle every month,” Berrocal said of meeting expenses.

Fund-raisers, donations, group work as professional television audiences and a recent $5,000 Community Partnership Award from the Los Angeles Times Valley and Ventura County Editions help pay the bills for the all-volunteer staff. “I have to believe God wants us to stay open,” Berrocal said.

The impact of saving one woman goes far, she said.

“When one woman is helped, she is going to affect at least 15 other people,” Berrocal said. “I’ve seen it happen over and over again.”

For more information on helping Oasis with upcoming fund-raisers, call Shrink to Fit, a public relations firmrepresenting the group, at (213) 222-5121. Lepire is a partner in the company.

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