- The Mandolin Foundation is seeking community support to help move its Amanda's House center to a larger location on Deckner Ave.
- The Six-bedroom facility serves 10 women and three children but has a waitlist of 60 people. Jolly said the larger facility would allow the foundation to serve around 30 women.
- Click here to donate to the GoFundMe in support of Amanda's House.
More than 37 million people suffer from substance abuse according to a 2020 study from Drug Abuse Statistics.
"You don't need to be locked up. You don't need to be told you're less than, you need help," Paula Jolly, executive director and founder of The Mandolin Foundation, said. "It helps me heal, by helping other people."
Jolly founded The Mandolin Foundation with her daughter, Amanda
At the time, Amanda struggled with an opioid-use disorder. Jolly said Amanda experienced rehab, relapse, and incarceration, all while trying to take care of her children.
"I worked at another sober living for two years, women would come in to come in and leave too quickly because they wanted to reunite with their children," Jolly said. "Then things would fall apart and then they'd be back. The whole cycle would just continue over and over and over so it's like, we need to try to figure a way to stop that cycle."
The Mandolin Foundation was created on Jan. 1, 2020.
A little more than a month later, Amanda died from an opioid overdose.
On March 16, 2022, Jolly opened Amanda's House, a place offering family-based recovery services for women and children experiencing substance use disorders.
"It just helps them rebuild their lives so that way when they're ready to leave here they are more stable and they can move forward in their lives," Jolly said.
Amanda's House assists 10 women and three children in a six-bedroom house. The waitlist for the center contains 60 people.
Jolly said due to the urgent need, she is looking to move into a bigger space on Deckner Ave.
She is asking for community support in raising $67,000 to place a down payment for the new building.
"Referring to the wait list and the phone calls every week, to not have to say no, to be able to say yes more often, would be huge," Jolly said.
Paula says construction and repairs to the vacant space would take between six to 12 months.
Click here to donate to the GoFundMe in support for Amanda's House.
