Second Chances Recovery & Retail Store, Inc.

About Second Chances Recovery & Retail Store, Inc.

Second Chances Recovery & Retail Store, Inc. is a sober living operator in Poteau, Oklahoma, running certified recovery housing for women in Le Flore County. The nonprofit combines housing with a resale store, a coffee and pastry bar, recovery meetings and classes, all based in the county seat.

A Le Flore County Recovery Housing Provider

The organization was founded to help people overcome what it calls life-controlling issues, and it works on several fronts at once: educational courses, life coaching, spiritual guidance, transitional housing, job training, in-house sober living and weekly recovery meetings. In a rural county, an organization that runs all of those under one roof is often the only place a person can find any of them. The retail operation funds the mission and supplies the job training at the same time.

Housing, Work and Recovery Meetings in One Sober Living Program

The resale store is the visible half of the organization and the practical half for residents. It provides local employment and job training, it supplies household goods to the housing, and it gives the community a reason to be involved that has nothing to do with anybody's diagnosis. Recovery meetings run weekly at the store and at a partner church in Poteau, so a resident's meeting, her job and her housing all sit inside the same small town.

Certification and This Sober Living Operator

Oklahoma does not require recovery residences to be certified, which makes voluntary certification through the state's affiliate of the National Alliance for Recovery Residences the main public record available on any provider. It binds a residence to a published code of ethics, written disclosure of fees and rules before move-in, a written relapse and discharge policy, and a complaint process reaching outside the house. This operator holds it in a county where very few providers do.

Recovery Housing for Poteau and Southeastern Oklahoma

Poteau is the seat of Le Flore County, sitting beneath Cavanal Hill in the Ouachita foothills near the Arkansas line. Carl Albert State College is in town, and US-59 and US-271 carry traffic toward Fort Smith to the north and Talihina to the west. Southeastern Oklahoma has very little certified recovery housing, and the nearest alternatives are across the state line or several hours away, so a provider based in the county seat keeps a resident near her own court, her own family and her own job market.

Reaching This Poteau Recovery Housing Provider

Inquiries go directly to the organization. The questions worth asking about a provider, as distinct from a particular address, are how long it has housed residents in Le Flore County, whether it takes referrals from treatment providers, the drug court and the department of corrections, how fees and deposits are documented and refunded, whether the store employment is available to residents, and how a complaint escalates past the house to the certifying body. Oklahoma's Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services lists statewide treatment and recovery resources.