“We were really sent here to open this up, to make a difference in this region,” said McKoy-Evans, who was nominated as a Dayton Community Gem.
It was a spiritual calling for both Martin and her, McKoy-Evans said.
“God spoke to her and told her (to come to) Dayton,” McKoy-Evans said about Martin. McKoy-Evans had a similar experience, saying she felt God call her to Ohio.
They started looking for locations in Dayton, previously opening in a different location in early 2021 before recently moving to 3411 Office Park Drive in Dayton earlier this year.
“Every door we walked in, it was opening. Three and a half years later, four years later, we’re here,” McKoy-Evans said. “We just got in the car and came.”
Darcy Shepherd, a certified peer supporter, nominated McKoy-Evans as a Community Gem for changing lives, including Shepherd’s, she said.
“I nominated her because (McKoy-Evans) and Femi literally left their home to come to Dayton, Ohio and help people like me,” said Shepherd, who has been in recovery for a decade.
Life Changing Family Care is one of the organizations Shepherd works at, and Shepherd admires both McKoy-Evans and Martin for connecting with both clients and employees.
“Their love, their kindness, their understanding, their patience for people, and their love for God, all of that just shines very brightly,” Shepherd said.
Their clients at Life Changing Family Care include people newly in recovery and others who have relapsed, McKoy-Evans said.
“We’re trying to do something different to help them not just focus on what they’re doing, but why they do what they do, so we try to help them through that process of bringing them understanding,” McKoy-Evans said.
Their program doesn’t provide medication, though McKoy-Evans recognized that’s not always for everyone.
Part of the seven-month intensive outpatient treatment includes looking back on their life, including confronting traumas they may have previously tried to avoid.
“They have to work on an autobiography, and sometimes the autobiography will pull up traumas from their childhood,” Martin said. “So when they get back to the recovery houses, there are resident assistants there that will assist them in how to cope with those feelings.”
The program is about more than just telling clients to abstain from drugs and alcohol, but is meant to help clients understand what may be causing their actions and influencing their substance use disorders, Martin said.
“We have to get rid of the hurt and the pain that caused them to become an addict, and a lot of that is speaking on their hurt, getting it up and out, and also writing about it,” Martin said.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
It’s a beautiful sight when they see their clients graduate from the program, they said.
“When you first see them, you see them at their lowest place,” Martin said.
Martin and McKoy-Evans have seen their clients who graduate from the program be able get their children back, get full-time jobs, get off of probation and more.
“It’s an awesome sight to see, and it just makes me so proud of them,” Martin said. “...Even for them, they didn’t think that it was possible, so it’s a wonderful sight to see.”
For more information on Life Changing Family Care, visit lifechangingfamilycare.com or call (937) 802-5440.
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