“The resources never got to us,” he says. “They poured billions into the opioid epidemic, but during the heroin epidemic of the 70’s and 80’s, you couldn’t find a dollar. If you were detoxing, you detoxed in jail or in someone’s basement. If you OD’d, you were dead, and it would take a day for someone to come and get the body. Even during COVID, in our neighborhoods, things weren’t much different. A box of masks cost $50. We were buying tubs of hand sanitizer and refilling the little bottles. We’d scream, yell, bang on the door – we needed this stuff. And after COVID died down, that’s when we started getting these materials, well after the fact.  Where was it when we needed it?”

For Pastor Dana, his mission now is to ensure that the neighborhoods and communities where he grew up receive the care and resources they deserve.

“We work with everyone – black, white – we don’t care. But our focus is on black and brown neighborhoods – our community’s neighborhoods,” he says. “We try to make sure people are taken care of. There are people out there that will say we make our own conditions, but you can’t understand the struggles we’ve gone through. We’re surviving in our conditions.”

Serving the greater New Britain area, New Life II, founded in 2016 by Pastors Dana and Evelyn Smith, is Connecticut’s first black-owned, faith-based, peer-led recovery community organization. It offers comprehensive recovery housing and peer services, providing intensive, person-centered addiction recovery alongside safe, affordable, drug-and alcohol-free housing. They offer non-clinical, peer-to-peer support for individuals affected by addiction, incarceration, trauma, and other significant life events, meeting individuals wherever they are in their recovery journey with enthusiasm, understanding, and without judgment. 

For Pastor Dana and Pastor Evelyn, these efforts ensure that people in their communities are not forgotten.

“What used to be a crack is now a gap, and people are falling through them, and the people falling through the gaps look like me,” says Pastor Dana. “Now we’re trying to fill them in, but instead of cement we’re filling those gaps in with love, with information, with understanding, with resources, with education and collaboration.”

The Gloria House, named after Pastor Dana’s mother, is another effort to prevent people from falling through those gaps. The home serves as Connecticut’s first peer-run respite, a four- bedroom residential home in New Britain staffed by peers with direct lived experience with mental health, addiction, and trauma. The Gloria House offers voluntary, short-term respite services as an alternative to traditional psychiatric stays. Guests are provided a space to navigate emotional distress, one-on-one peer support, and access to many other tools and resources to promote wellness, connection, and self-determination. The Gloria House aspires to create a space where guests can find the connection and support needed to turn a difficult time into an opportunity.

“Everyone has different needs. Some people just need their rest,” says Pastor. “If you’re having a crisis of some sort, or life just hits you and you get the wind knocked out of you, you can’t breathe at home or at work, we are the alternative – a place where you can come and get your breath. I think of life like a snow globe. Sometimes it’s all shaken up, but when you get the chance to put it down, everything settles. That’s what we want to be.”

To develop this supportive environment, New Life II needed a partner. Pastors Dana and Evelyn, having heard of CIL through a friend at the Klingberg Family Center, reached out to CIL to turn their vision for The Gloria House into a reality. CIL found the home in New Britain that would become The Gloria House in February of 2024 and closed on the home in early March.

"They took the work off the table for us," says Pastor Dana. "From closing costs to paperwork, they made it all happen."

After furnishing the home and finding and training staff, The Gloria House has been open to residents since early July. The home is open to anyone 18 or older with an address in Connecticut, and guests can come and go as they please. The home provides 24/7 peer support with minimal paperwork and is free of charge. Amenities are designed to create a comfortable and enriching stay, including access to two full kitchens with staple foods provided, two living rooms, two TV rooms, laundry facilities, a house phone, Wi-Fi, a house computer, arts and crafts supplies, musical instruments, yoga/meditation tools, and a large backyard with a garden. Guests enjoy their private bedroom while having unlimited access to common spaces. The house encourages rest and personal regrouping, allowing guests to determine their own schedules for waking, sleeping, and eating.

Reflecting on the opening of The Gloria House, Pastor Dana acknowledges those contributing their time and efforts to help those in need, putting past experiences and growth into perspective.

“We don’t know it all, but we know what it feels like to not have, to be stigmatized and ignored,” he says. “We know what it’s like to not have eaten in days, to be detoxing. We know what it’s like to be unhoused, what it’s like on Mother and Father’s day and not be with your kids. We know what it’s like to have your lights turned off and have an extension cord running from three houses down. There’s no sympathy in the house, but there is a whole bunch of empathy.”

In a world where marginalized communities have long been overlooked, the opening of The Gloria House stands as a beacon of hope and renewal. It represents a commitment to providing resources, understanding, and a sense of belonging to those who need it most, an effort that ensures everyone who walks through their doors receives not just a respite but a genuine opportunity to heal, learn, and grow. The Gloria House, the first of its kind in the state, is a place where people can find their breath amidst life’s storms and begin to rebuild their lives with the love, support, and dignity they deserve.

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