Healing the Helpers in Recovery Communities

When people think about recovery programs, they often picture clinical services, rules, or temporary housing. But at Gilly’s House in Wrentham, Massachusetts, recovery is built around something deeper: community, dignity, and belonging.

Founded by Barbara and David Gillmeister after the loss of their son Steven to a drug overdose, Gilly’s House has become a lifeline for men rebuilding their lives in recovery. Over the past eight years, the nonprofit sober recovery home has supported more than 270 men from 85 Massachusetts communities, and beyond. But what makes Gilly’s House different is not just the number of people they have worked with, it is how they serve them.

“We are very proud of what we’ve created,” Barbara shared during a recent conversation with GPS CEO Liz Friedman. “It’s really a home for people. It’s not just a place to lay your head.”

The house provides far more than shelter. Residents receive meals, toiletries, bedding, emotional support, structure, and opportunities to reconnect with joy and community. Staff organize activities like bowling, fishing trips, escape rooms, trivia nights, and financial literacy workshops because, as Barbara explained, “it’s important to be able to learn that you can have a good time and you don’t have to be high to do that.”

But behind this work is another story, one that often goes untold in conversations about recovery. The people supporting residents are carrying emotional weight too.

Gilly’s House operates with 24/7 staffing, and every staff member is in long-term recovery themselves. That lived experience is part of what makes the program feel safe and deeply trusted by residents navigating recovery journeys of their own.

“I think that [new clients] always want to know, is it somebody who is in their shoes?” Barbara said. “And that makes a huge difference.”

At the same time, supporting others through substance use disorder while maintaining your own recovery can be emotionally demanding work. Staff are constantly holding space for trauma, relapse fears, grief, crisis, and the daily emotional realities of recovery. Many are doing this work not because it is easy or financially rewarding, but because they care deeply about the people walking through the doors.

One challenge Barbara described is that staff rarely have time or space to support one another emotionally. Because only one staff member is typically working at a time, opportunities for connection and honest conversation are limited.

“It would be great to be able to have people get together more often and have those conversations,” she said.

That is where MASStrong comes in.

Through the MASStrong initiative, GPS partners with organizations across Massachusetts to provide trauma-informed peer support, facilitator training, implementation funding, and support groups for healthcare and behavioral health workers, including people working in recovery communities like Gilly’s House.

What stood out to Barbara was not simply the idea of staff wellness programming, but the emphasis on lived experience and emotionally honest conversations.

“I think having someone come made them feel seen,” Barbara reflected while discussing previous support sessions for staff. 

MASStrong groups are designed to create exactly those kinds of spaces. Places where workers can talk openly about stress, emotional exhaustion, boundaries, grief, recovery, and the realities of supporting others while trying to care for themselves too. Unlike traditional workplace trainings, the GPS Model centers shared lived experience, emotional safety, and peer connection.

For organizations like Gilly’s House, that approach matters. Recovery work is deeply human work, and the people doing it often need support themselves. MASStrong exists to remind workers in recovery spaces that they should not have to carry that weight alone.

Bring MASStrong to Your Workplace

GPS’s MASStrong program offers free GPS trainings, support groups, curriculums, and toolkits for Massachusetts medical, behavioral health, and community care workers and organizations. Eligible organizations can also apply for GPS partnership support and grants up to $10,000.