“A home for women who are in need in the things that they’ve suffered through: Rape, domestic violence, sexual attack, mental illness, addiction. All of those things. A term that we’ve been using lately is a therapeutic recovery community.”

Marian House in Baltimore, Maryland, helps women start new lives.

Cassaundra says she got to Marian House after a long struggle with drugs and alcohol. She tells what happened to her.

“Ultimately, I ended up in bad relationships, domestic violence. My last relationship … ended up with 29 stitches to the face, from the eyebrow down around to the neck.”

Cassaundra says it is hard to get into the center. Women are questioned before they can be admitted. They need to show that they are willing and ready to do something different. Cassaundra says when she did this, she had, in her words, “nothing left…absolutely nothing.” She says she needed Marian House desperately.

Katie Alston describes life at Marian House as like living in a dormitory for college students. But Ms. Alston says the center has strong rules.

“We have curfews, we have restrictions on visitors. We have an expectation, the first week they are on blackout. They can’t leave the building. After the first week, they have earlier curfews than they will later on.”

She says the women are expected to be involved in all required parts of the program. If they fail to attend a counseling meeting, they receive a written warning from a counselor.