Amy’s Place: Amy Winehouse Foundation Announces Opening Of Addiction Recovery Home For Women
English singer Amy Winehouse died on July 23, 2011, at the young age of 27, and on her fifth death anniversary, the Amy Winehouse Foundation revealed that they will be soon opening a drug and alcohol recovery home exclusively for women.
The Amy Winehouse Foundation, headed by Amy’s father Mitchell, was established by Amy’s family on September 14, 2011, supposedly Amy’s 28th birthday, to provide support for addicts and help educate people about the dangers of alcohol and substance abuse. The foundation also supports disadvantaged youth through music.
Our new programme #AmysPlace with @CentraGroup works with young women in recovery from drug/alcohol addiction https://t.co/d81UyA8cug
— AmyWinehouseFdation (@AmysFoundation) August 1, 2016
Amy Winehouse died of alcohol intoxication, and according to the coroner, Winehouse’s alcohol level at the time of her death was more than five times the legal limit.
Amy Winehouse struggled with substance and alcohol abuse for years before her death. In 2005, the singer was reportedly into heavy drugs and drinking, and she also lost a lot of weight. According to her family members, the death of her grandmother in 2006 set Amy off in a downward spiral.
In the documentary filmAmy, Amy Winehouse talked about being depressed and how she used music to get through her depression, as reported by Mirror.
“I don’t think I knew what depression was. I know I felt funny sometimes and I was different. It’s a musician thing, that’s why I write music. I’m not like some messed up person, you know? There’s a lot of people that suffer depression that don’t have an outlet, you know what I mean?”
The recovery home for women will be called Amy’s Place, as reported by Rolling Stone, and it will be located in east London. The house will consist of 12 apartments which can house a total of 16 women.
In an interview with The Guardian, Dominic Ruffy, the special project director at the foundation, said that they decided to open Amy’s Place due to the limited number of addiction centers for women in the UK despite the fact that women are reported to be more prone to relapsing.
“There are about six women-only rehabs, and beyond that, there’s an even greater paucity of women-specific recovery housing beds. There is only one other women-only recovery house in London and it’s only a four-bed with a six-month waiting list.”
The Amy Winehouse Foundation is opening a rehabilitation home for women in London https://t.co/slDO6uohXZ pic.twitter.com/4mi5GQIBhp
— Rolling Stone (@RollingStone) August 1, 2016
Dominic, who spent time in recovery, said that Amy’s Place is different from traditional rehabilitation centers as they provide a safe location for recovering addicts wherein they can slowly be introduced back into society with the support of other people.
“We have a saying in recovery that the drink and drugs aren’t our problem, it’s living life clean and sober.”
Amy’s Place will be run by the Amy Winehouse Foundation in partnership with Centra Care and Support, an organization which provides services to senior citizens and survivors of domestic abuse. As reported by Circle Housing, those who enter Amy’s Place will go through a three-month program that consists of relapse prevention talks and activities such as yoga. They welcome recovering addicts ages 18 to 30.
Jane Winehouse, Amy Winehouse’s stepmother and a trustee of the foundation, said that opening Amy’s Place to recovering women will make a big difference in many women’s lives.
“Fresh starts are difficult to make; full of challenges, but at Amy’s Place we will give young women the tools and support to help them make this a reality.”
Amy’s Place will open on August 22.
[Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images for MTV]
