Sheila DeBerry

It was in Nashville that Sheila DeBerry became addicted to crack cocaine and where she was incarcerated for 19 months on drug-related charges.

And had she been released directly back onto the streets of Nashville, she's certain her former vices would have tempted her.

Instead she enrolled in The Next Door, a six-month program in a gated community designed to address the physical, mental, spiritual and life issues of women and their children.

"I was able to (be rehabilitated) right here in the city where I lived without being in the city," said Ms. DeBerry, a former Chattanooga resident. "Before Next Door, there really wasn't anything like that here. If you were in trouble you were just in trouble, and when you got out you went back to what you always knew."

The Next Door officials said they sensed that Hamilton and surrounding counties also needed a program that rehabilitated women, provided counseling and helped them find jobs and housing.

The organization has been considering opening a facility in Chattanooga for a couple of years, CEO Linda Leathers said. If it can find a location for the program and enough community partners and staff members, the operation could fully function as early as November, she said.

"The needs are so great for quality housing and support services for women," Ms. Leathers said. "In Hamilton County, there are very few options for housing."

Currently in Hamilton County, Family Way, a division of the Council for Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services, helps women find a house and job and offers counseling.

The Next Door also is planning to open a facility in Knoxville.

The recidivism rate for women who finish the half-year program is 14 percent, Ms. Leathers said. Those who graduate also participate in a lifetime recovery management program, which is a network designed to help women beyond The Next Door. The group meets in Nashville each Wednesday.

"If we can really make an impact in the life of one woman, we can change a generation," Ms. Leathers said.

Women leaving incarceration face a different struggle than men, especially if children are involved, said Charles Traughber, chairman of the Tennessee Board of Probation and Parole.

The state has started tailoring its parole program in Shelby County toward women, allowing them to meet face-to-face with parole or probation officers before being recommended for parole. The board hopes to expand the initiative, which helps women find housing, employment and schooling for their children, he said.

"The female population, in essence, has more needs than the male population, sometimes children are attached, scattered if they're not in one place with family members, finding housing, employment, schools," Mr. Traughber said during a recent meeting with the Chattanooga Times Free Press editorial board. "That's a lot to come out to, and many parents have that problem now, so think if you were incarcerated and coming out and had to do that."

Ms. DeBerry can attest to The Next Door's success. Since graduating from the program in July 2005 she's been employed, and she now works as a customer representative. She's been drug-free for nearly six years, she said.

"I just don't know what I would have done if I hadn't had the faith-based structure that The Next Door provided," she said.