By Cheryl Jahn

Olive’s Branch turns three

Apr 1, 2022 | 3:46 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Gordon Carpenter is the maintenance man at Olive’s Branch. But he wasn’t always. A short time ago, he was living on the streets addicted to drugs. Heroin, his first drug of choice.

“I started that early and I just liked it and I was in jail for 33 years and I was on the streets all my life. My life was in shambles.”

Wanda has a similar story.

“My anniversary being out of homelessness is actually October 8, 2018. That’s when I od’d for the last time,” she recalls. “I was lucky enough to have somebody there to breathe for me for ten minutes. If that person wasn’t there, I’d definitely be dead.”

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Both are alumni of Olive’s Branch, which opened its doors three years ago. It offers different programs to tackle addiction, depending on the individual needs. But its success carries with it a heavy burden. There is already a waitlist.

“It’s really unfortunate because we have our teams out there, working the streets, connecting with individuals and encouraging them to transition from addiction to recovery and when at that point and they’ve taken that step, and they’ve gone into detox and now they’re ready and now it’s really unfortunate we have to wait. And then they’re sent back out to the streets,” says Connie Abe, Executive Director of AWAC.

Wanda lived at Olive’s Branch for nearly two and a half years.

“I found a lot of supports for all of the barriers I have. Olive’s Branch was the very first place I felt safe in my entire life. And I almost lived here for two and a half years. I moved out 12 days before Christmas and started working at the shelter.”

Carpenter likes the place so much, he now works there and it breaks his heart when he sees so many people where he was a few short years ago.

“I try my best to coax them to do the same thing I did, right? But you have to want it before you do it, right?”

And while Carpenter would like to bring people out of the cycle of addiction, without places like Olive’s Branch, that will be a struggle.