Just 18 months ago, Jesi Squires did not have a key to her family’s home in southeast Georgia. She was homeless, abusing intravenous drugs and had a felony on her record. Jimbo Partin, executive director at Gardens of Hope in Lyons, which is what is known as a recovery community organization, said he remembers Squires’ […]
Rep. Leesa Hagan, a Lyons Republican, speaks at a Capitol press conference on addiction recovery in early 2026. Hagan is sponsoring a bill that defines what a recovery community organization is and the baseline for what these centers should. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder
Just 18 months ago, Jesi Squires did not have a key to her family’s home in southeast Georgia. She was homeless, abusing intravenous drugs and had a felony on her record.
Jimbo Partin, executive director at Gardens of Hope in Lyons, which is what is known as a recovery community organization, said he remembers Squires’ calls for help.
“It was probably a three-day period of phone calls at all times of the night,” Partin said. “Just being supportive of her and just letting her know that whenever she was truly ready, I had things prepared for her to go and had a bed and everything all lined up. All she had to do was say when.”
Gardens of Hope helped Squires get into an inpatient program with the Addiction Recovery Center in Alamo. She is now in long-term recovery and working in peer support, helping others find their own path to recovery.
“I went from busted and disgusted with no hope to, here I am completely on the other side of it 18 months later,” Squires said. “Working in recovery, active in recovery, and I’m just a productive member of society today. I’m able to help other people. And I could have never imagined that for me 18 months ago.”
Squires was also exonerated of her felony charge and has reunited with her family.
“I couldn’t be more proud of her and just how far she’s come,” Partin said. “We were able to help support her until she got herself together and now she’s back with her child, man. It don’t get no better than that.”
Squires is one of many Georgians living in recovery from substance use today. Recovery community organizations, like Gardens of Hope, are non-profits staffed by people from the recovery community. They can provide resources like transportation and non-clinical care to those with substance abuse disorders.
Now there’s a push to set standards for these recovery community organizations in hopes of protecting vulnerable Georgians when they reach out to these groups for help.
Already passed in the House of Representatives, House Bill 657 seeks to define recovery community organizations and the work they do in Georgia. The bill now awaits consideration in the Senate.
Jeff Breedlove, who works as a strategic policy advisor for Georgia Council for Recovery, said that Georgia now has 57 recovery center organizations across the state.
“As they grow, there is that potential that a con artist would come in and try to misrepresent what happens there and maybe harm people,” Breedlove said. “We want to put protections in law for our good recovery community organizations so that people know they’re going to a place of integrity.”
The bill’s sponsor, Lyons Republican Rep. Leesa Hagan, said her proposal centers people in recovery and focuses on what’s best for them.
“It lays out requirements for recovery community organizations,” Hagan said. “Not to take away their individuality, because that’s very important. Just to make sure that there’s a baseline of good quality care and support.”
Hagan represents rural Toombs County, which is home to Gardens of Hope. Hagan said voices and passion from the organization were integral to the creation of the bill.
Partin, the center’s executive director, said Gardens of Hope is also able to use grants to help people working toward recovery pay for clinical treatment. He said they received another grant that allows for a full-time mental health professional on staff at the Toombs County Detention Center.
Partin said he hopes Hagan’s bill will dissuade bad actors from taking advantage of the support that recovery community organizations get from the government.
“I think that this bill will help solidify and protect the integrity of the RCOs,” Partin said. “And hold us accountable. There’s nothing wrong with a little accountability to make sure that the work is being done correctly.”
The bill also seeks to define certified peer specialists, who are people working for recovery community organizations who have come out the other side of addiction. The proposed law says peer specialists work “from the perspective of his or her lived experience and help build environments conducive to recovery, promoting hope, personal responsibility, empowerment, education, and self-determination in the communities served.”
“The addiction epidemic is real and deadly,” Breedlove said. “The number one cause of death for Americans 18 to 45 is fentanyl overdose and poisoning. But as real as addiction is, recovery is very real too.”
For those in recovery, like Squires and thousands of other Georgians, the help they find at recovery community organizations can be the difference between life and death.
“We have a thing in recovery that we say,” Squires said. “We recover loudly to keep others from dying quietly.”
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