In rural Lorain County women experience the consequences of substance abuse directly, as abusers themselves, or as family members of abusers in numbers at least as great as their urban and suburban counterparts, yet have little or no access to help. Rural women, first and foremost isolated by the very nature of addictive illnesses, are additionally isolated by economics, geography and social custom.

In our rural county there are women caught in the lonely emptiness of their own substance abuse. Still other women begin every day knowing it will bring pain and fear because of someone else’s addiction and children grow up as the helpless victims of substance abuse, assimilating the dysfunctional patterns that will forever perpetuate the cycle of addiction.

Heartland Circle began as a grass roots response to the problem of substance abuse and the lack of services - medical, mental health, support - for people in rural Lorain County. It was discovered that women were particularly at risk due to additional attitudinal, cultural, economic and geographical barriers.

Heartland Circle grew out of a series of focus group meetings in 1994-1995 and was incorporated in October of 1996.

Heartland Circle has as its mission:

To implement the Heartland Circle recovery model that is based on the unique needs of rural women and their families in Lorain, Medina, Ashland and Huron counties so that they may empower themselves and each other to prevent and recover from all forms of substance abuse and chemical dependency.

From the very beginning Heartland Circle took a different approach to helping people that included unique kinds of outreach.

We offer excellent workshops on topics such as grief, debt, parenting, taking care of elderly or ill persons, learning disabilities, homework problems and a variety of craft projects.

When someone attends a workshop, she or he can be added to our mailing list and then learns about the other workshops and services we provide. They know we are “safe” and are then able to come to workshops about the more difficult issues and receive help.

We create "recipe flyers" that are distributed in grocery stores. They contain fun and practical recipes on the front and information about Heartland Circle on the back.

We post notices about workshops and services in laundromats, corner stores at rural crossroads, township offices and churches.

We began with hosting workshops in area churches and libraries and businesses. We had just over a dozen workshops the first year attended by about 100 people. An area businessman donated Heartland Circle House so we were able to have more workshops and other events. We have now had hundreds of workshops attended by nearly 5,000 people. (This includes people attending workshops for the first time and then returning for other workshops).

From the beginning it has been our goal to work with other organizations to create mechanisms through which they could provide services to people in the rural parts of the county. We want to make existing services accessible, not duplicate services. We have accomplished that goal and continue to expand these relationships.

We currently share our facility with:

Lorain County Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services
Alcoholics Anonymous
Al-Anon
Overeaters Anonymous
The Alzheimer’s Caregiver Support Group
The Kinship Caregiver Resource and Support Group
The Early Intervention Play Group