KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — After overcoming addiction, a Knoxville woman is now helping others who were where she once was by opening a recovery house. Move-in starts in just over a week.
Cayleah Antras said before she was in recovery, she remembers feeling hopeless and like nothing could help her. Now that she's on the other side, she said she wants to use her personal experience to help other women recover.
"Now that I am, I so desperately just want women to know they are not alone. We can do this together. It doesn't have to be the end of the road because you went into drug addiction. We can come back around from that and you can be a recovering addict and you can help other women," said Antras.
She said she suffered from substance abuse for more than a decade. She said she had given up her children and the last time she was facing prison, she was given the option to go through Blount County Recovery Court. She said she was in the program for around a year and a half and had been a part of the Women's Residential Recovery Court in Middle Tennessee.
Antras said graduated from that program in 2023. She said she then went back to the Blount County Recovery Court and graduated from that program in September. And even before she graduated, she started putting in the work to open her own home.
"It was probably about six or seven months ago, I just started thinking like I could, you know, maybe I could open my own house," said Antras.
The recovery home isn't open for move-in until Nov. 1. Antras said she's still getting the house ready and she needs some help. She is accepting donations of couches, dressers, chests and clothing.
"A lot of these women when they come here, they don't have clothes or hygiene, things of that nature. We're just trying to put a place together so that women can come and it feels home, like they feel like they're at home here," said Antras. "The idea is to hopefully get more houses and help more women because there's never enough recovery houses around here and there's always women needing help."
The home will have space for up to 10 women at first. She said this home is important to her because women don't have a lot of places to go and people can't recover if they're in their old environments.
"I just wanna give them a place because a lot of these women don't have a place to go. If they decide to get clean, they can't go back to their old environment. They have no means to get into any kind of housing and they're starting from ground zero. So this is a way to help them integrate back into life, getting a job learning how to budget, learning how to do chores," said Antras.
Antras said recovery homes are usually six-month programs to help women get back on their feet, but there is no timeline if someone needs more or less time. She said women will also need to be employed while living there so they will get help finding a job. They will also be assigned chores around the house and will have weekly meetings and mandatory service work.
Antras said she is so grateful to be in the position she's in now, and she's even an active part of her daughters' lives.
"It's taken a village to help me with this. I have definitely not done this on my own. I've had all kinds of people that have helped me in different ways and I just wanna express, I appreciate all the support that I've gotten and I am hoping to help many, many people throughout the way, as much as they help me," said Antras.
Antras said if anyone is interested in learning more about living at the home or donating supplies to the home, they can call her at 865-358-1500. Those interested can also visit this website.