GREAT FALLS — For over a year, a treatment center for women called GYST House has been open and soon GYST House Two, a similar home for men struggling with addiction will welcome residents.
It's the idea of a Great Falls addictions counselor who's dedicated to opening doors for people in recovery.
“I think God was on our side and helped us find the perfect home for this,” said GYST House founder and owner Victoria Davenport.
As a recovering addict, Davenport knows first hand the struggle of getting clean and sober. Her passion for helping others led to the August 2023 opening of GYST House, a residential treatment house for women.
“We've been able to help so many women in our community become clean and sober and find apartments and get jobs and get their kids back and it's been just beautiful to watch that,” said Davenport.
A year later, Victoria and her team are on the verge of opening a second location on the east end of town.
“It will be a 30-day treatment program here for the men,” said Davenport.
Davenport says the first GYST House is labeled level 3.3, meaning it’s a 60 to 90-day program. She says GYST House Two is one level higher at 3.5 where men will be allowed to stay for 30 days.
Housing up to eight men at a time, and modeled after a local treatment center where Victoria once worked, GYST House Two will be staffed around the clock.
“We do have a lot of drugs around and alcohol issues,” said GYST House Operations Director Nessa Heaton. “So it's a place to it's a safe place for them to go and get the help they need and start their recovery journey.”
“We will offer two groups a day, co-occurring groups, and then they will go out in the community to sober support groups and they'll do big book readings, smart recovery and the 12 Steps while they're here,” said Davenport.
Davenport says she has yet to meet the neighbors, but if the concerns about the first GYST House are any indication, she says there’s no cause for alarm.
“Some neighbors were concerned they thought it would be like the tent city downtown or something, but they found out pretty quickly that there's no extra noise,” said Davenport.” There's no crime being committed. We're actually trying to help the community and to reduce the crime, to reduce the drug and alcohol use.”
GYST is an acronym for Get Your Stuff Together, although the word stuff is often interchanged with another four-letter expletive. Whatever the meaning, GYST House hopes to welcome people in pain and give them the skills to navigate their road to recovery.
“It's not just 90 days, it's a lifetime change,” said Heaton. “They feel the support and understanding and the motivation to stay sober.”
“I didn't get the opportunity to go to an inpatient treatment center and so I want people to have that opportunity to get away from their direct environment for a bit and time, to think about things, time to work on themselves,” said Davenport.
The new facility is at 4404 Fourth Avenue North in Great Falls and an open house will be held Saturday, Nov. 23, 2024, from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m., with the house officially opening the following Friday.
