DUDLEY, Ga. — In Laurens County, an addiction rehab center that opened in 1999 is celebrating 25 years of helping people break free from the chains of addiction.
Since their doors opened, Promise of Hope has served over 800 women at their live-in center in Dudley. In 2011, they added a men's center in Cochran.
It's the kind of place that founder Denise Dobbins said you might see a phenomenon everyday.
"People think miracles don't happen anymore. They do here – everyday," Dobbins said.
Dobbins's miracle is that she's in recovery herself. She started Promise of Hope to help other women experience the miracle of recover too.
"We're very grateful to be here for 25 years serving. And we're still going strong by the grace of God," she said.
Promise of Hope is a faith-based, 12 step program. Rebecca Baldowski said she discovered a relationship with God when she came to Promise of Hope in 2017.
"Even from you know, 13, 14, 15 years old- drinking, like – I always drank too much," she said.
Baldowski said she was already in an accountability court program when she was arrested for driving under the influence. The judge sent her to Promise of Hope.
"I was so angry. I was trying to come up with every excuse to not go," Baldowski said.
But she said it was at the facility where she learned to let go of her addiction, and let God take control.
"Ever since then, I get so emotional because it's like, I've been totally changed. From the inside out," Baldowski said.
Seven years of sobriety later, she's about to close on a house, and shrjust got engaged. But her biggest miracle she said, is after decades of addiction, she's now works as a substance abuse counselor.
"And I truly- I have a passion for it and I really believe in it because the program that sent me here. You know, I know that it can work," Baldowski said.
It worked for her, and she knows that same miracle can work for other too, if they give Promise of Hope a chance.
Dobbins said Promise of Hope has a 78% success rate, and many of the staff today are former members of the program.