Today we’d like to introduce you to Victoria Shepherd-Burnett
Hi Victoria, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I founded the organization back in mid 2019 and became a 501c3 nonprofit in late 2020. The Inn’s original demographic was 14-19 year old girls who I worked with at my then job, Cafe Momentum, in Downtown Dallas. At one point during the Covid-19 Pandemic I had taken in 6 teenage girls and a baby that were homeless as a result of failed adoptions, parental surrender and/or aging out of the foster care system.
After housing this demographic for 2.5 years I became heavily depressed and drinking and using drugs to cope with my own unresolved trauma. After growing the organization to 2 homes in 2022, newly married with a baby on the way I thought I couldn’t live anymore and almost ended me and my babies life in March 2022. After an intervention at Baylor Hospital and an emergency C-Section, I completely checked out of life. I was drinking and using drugs daily, left my child to be taken care of by my husband and family, while my mom (3 years sober) ran The Inn. After 4 months of chaos I finally decided to check myself into a treatment center and got real help. That decision saved my life and while in the in-patient facility I noticed many women had lost everything. No home to go back to, family not speaking to them, years of unresolved trauma and no job or career they could easily obtain. So at only a few weeks sober I invited 5 of the women discharging that same week to come live in our home. That day, The Inn Recovery Community was born!
Since September 15, 2022 the organization has grown from 2 homes housing 10 women a year to 3 homes, a duplex, a triplex and a 4 plex housing around 120 women, children and families a year. With a relapse rate of only 5.5% in 2023, (national average is 70%) the numbers don’t lie!
Something magical happens at The Inn, and as a result lives are forever changed!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It’s been anything but smooth! BUT if I had not stumbled along the way, many, many times, I wouldn’t know what I know now.
I have learned more from my mistakes and my failures than I have from my successes. And I realize now that they are 100% necessary for growth.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
At The Inn we are known for our 100 Day No Cost Social Detox Program as well as our Low Cost Sober Living Homes for individuals, couples and small families seeking a better life in North Texas.
However, one of my most favorite parts of this program, that most people don’t know about, is our paid job training program.
Now, this is not unique, I perfected my skills for three years at Cafe Momentum, which I owe so much to!
I learned how vitally necessary it is to not give someone something, but teach them how to do it, and hopefully one day they can do the same.
We are opening a beautiful brick and mortar boutique and workshop in my families home town of Corsicana (just under an hour south of Dallas). After searching for a long time, we decided expanding our services to downtown Corsicana was not only needed, but wanted in our growing community!
Volunteers and team members will be able to teach clients and community members how to sew, paint, draw, woodwork, crochet, web design, calligraphy, and so much more. They do not have to pay for the supplies and once they complete something they may sell it in the boutique at any price they desire or keep it. When it sells they keep 90% of the sale and 10% gets donated back for more supplies.
We have been doing this online and in farmers markets since 2021, so it was definitely time for a brick and mortar store!
THIS is what I love the most, helping people find their purpose!
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I was a normal kid I think. I do have addiction that runs in my family, I know now that’s not uncommon.
I was outgoing, loved singing, in choir, band, gymnastics, cheerleading in high school. I was over weight in my pre teen phase and made fun of…until I got to high school and got taller and slimmed down then I was made fun of for being tall.
I was a normal kid, until summer before my senior year when I was sexually assaulted at a party by two guys in my class. Since I was 16 and drunk, and they had football scholarships they could lose, I never reported it. I kept it inside and was ostracized by everyone I thought were my friends. That one night started a 16 year struggle with suicidal thoughts, anxiety, depression, drugs, alcohol, jail, accepting abuse as love, seeking attention, people pleasing and so many other forms of destructive behaviors I was using to fill the emptiness I felt inside.
If I could go back I would tell that 16 year old girl that it wasn’t her fault, it was there’s. That it doesn’t matter if you are drunk or high or unconscious, no one has the right to violate you!
Pricing:
- • First 100 days: FREE
- • Graduates single room: $150/wk
- • Tiny house with your reunited family: $200/wk
Contact Info:
- Website: https://theinndallas.org
- Instagram: @theinnrecoverycommunity
- Facebook: https://Facebook.com/shepherdinn
Image Credits
Personal Photo: Catina Hall Photography
Support photos: Residents and Team Members who have given consent for their photos to be used.
