Gina has been fighting alcohol addiction for decades.
“I realized, wow, I’m drinking to get drunk. I’m drinking to black out,” she says. She was arrested four times within 10 years for driving under the influence, resulting in her losing her driver’s license for 10 years. She spent time in jail, lost several jobs, even tried rehab —which didn’t work. Her mother, daughters and friends repeatedly told her she needed to make a change, but Gina says she was an angry drunk, which caused people to ultimately avoid her.
“I was waking up drinking just to not have a hangover,” said Gina, who asked us not to use her last name for privacy. “My whole day was just constantly thinking of alcohol… I was drinking like a fifth every day.”
After losing yet another job, she went to Recover Together Bend, a 30-day inpatient rehab facility.
“I was ready. They say, you know, you just surrender yourself.”
Gina said, for some reason, this time, the program worked, but it might not have lasted if she hadn’t met Cathie Coe Sipe from New Each Morning, a nonprofit that provides one-on-one peer support for women who’ve completed a recovery treatment program.
“I cannot say enough how much New Each Morning with Cathie has helped me,” Gina says adamantly. “They helped me with Uber cards because I had no license when I had to get to appointments… Within three weeks I had one job and then I found a really good job. It was really stressful…you know, learning things sober.”
New Each Morning started in 2020. Sipe, a hairdresser for 40 years, wanted to do more to help women feel good about themselves. She started volunteering for Dress for Success, a nonprofit in Portland, but eventually realized the need also existed in Central Oregon, so she volunteered at a residential home for women by providing haircuts.
“I would watch the women come in from the most broken of places — and that’s at least a year-long program, so I watched them work super hard, courageous and then it would be graduation time and it was, ‘Yay you did it. Congratulations. Have a nice life.’ I was, like, wait a minute, we’re dropping them off a cliff. There’s no place to live. There’s no transportation… It was a huge gap in our community.” That’s when Sipe began planning New Each Morning.
The program began with four female clients. That’s expanded to 10, with another four who also check in from time to time. New Each Morning only works with women who have been referred from alcohol and drug treatment programs. The nonprofit is managed by volunteers who meet weekly with the women. While the program requires a 90-day commitment, Sipe says, after building a relationship with someone, there is no expiration date.
“We have two mamas that have been reunited with their babies, and one of them is expecting again,” Sipe beams. “We were able to help another woman with driving lessons. [She was] 41, never had a driver’s license and got her driver’s license.”
“It’s now time to start creating structure and funding to be able to hire peer support specialists to work with clients, because the demand is great,” Sipe explains about why she’s part of the Central Oregon Gives fundraising effort.
“Peer support is about meeting someone right where they are, for who they are and helping them become their own best resource.” Sipe says she can relate, sharing that she has an adult child with an active alcohol addiction whose father died at the age of 49 from alcohol abuse.
New Each Morning goes beyond conversations. It helps with resumes, appropriate clothing for work, transportation, even home repairs.
For Gina, who owns a mobile home, that last part was crucial. “My bathroom sink didn’t work,” she says. “I was brushing my teeth in the kitchen for three years. I just finally got that done, which is so nice.” The nonprofit also helped fix steps outside her home which had been a safety hazard.
“They got me a vacuum, things I didn’t have. I got a down comforter. I’ve never had a down comforter before,” she says excitedly.
Money raised would also help women in the program with rent assistance until they can support themselves. Sipe says housing is the number one issue facing women coming out of rehab.
“Our long-term goal is to actually have a residential house so that we can offer that housing and take that pressure off, and then have some sort of enterprise where we can offer employment as well,” Sipe says.
Gina has three grown daughters, ages 19, 21 and 23, who have all come back into her life. She’s going to be a grandmother soon, and has goals. She’s saving for a car. “I’ve always wanted a Toyota,” she says. In three years she can apply for a new driver’s license. “I want to go camping. I want to take my dog places and I can take him with me and not worry that I’m gonna drink.” As of October, Gina is six months sober. “I feel amazing,” she says with a big smile.
“I’m just so proud of you,” Sipe says to Gina with tears in her eyes. “When we meet with clients we always pay for coffee or lunch or whatever, and the last time we went out she’s like, ‘No, I’m working. I can get my own. That’s progress.”
“Yeah, it’s a good feeling,” Gina responds. “I’m sure I’ve hurt a lot of friendships. I’m sure there’s apologies I still need to give. There’s some apologies that I can’t give where I just write it down on paper, I burn it and it’s gone.”
A quote on the website of New Each Morning, reads, “The opposite of addiction is not sobriety. It is human connection.” That’s at the heart of the nonprofit’s mission.
“I’m telling you, these women, they are more courageous than the majority of people,” Sipe says. “We’ve created a word and our word is ‘brutiful.’ It’s beautiful work that is sometimes brutal.”
Sipe celebrates the little wins. “One more day. One more day. They’re walking in sobriety another day. That’s a victory.”
This article appears in the Source November 6, 2025.
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