Promise of Hope

Faith-based finalists: Holding up a mirror to addiction | Peter Jackson

DUDLEY, Ga.—A plastic orange hand mirror dangled from a shoestring around Dawn's neck, bearing the Sharpie-scrawled inscription, "I am the problem." Pushing laundry into the dryer at the Promise of Hope campus, Dawn pointed emphatically to her smiling, tight-shut mouth in lieu of explanation. The program directors had given her the mirror and "taken her voice" to remind her to look inward and hold her tongue instead of blaming others.

Unconventional, occasionally sarcastic exercises like these illustrate the tough love of Promise of Hope, a 10-year-old residential rehab center serving a dozen women in Dudley, Ga. (population 496), two hours south of Atlanta. Denise Dobbins, the program's founder, said the ministry teaches women "how to deal with life on life's terms, without using drugs."