Harmony Of Recovery

Story by Everett Brazil, III/Staff Writer

Harmony House has a long and storied history of helping those in need in the Ponca City community. The two-story structure is tucked away in a quiet section of downtown Ponca, and the rooms of the structure were once filled with love and support in helping those struggling with substance abuse problems. The building has seen its glory days in the past, but the organization is still here, and is reaching out to the community to once again bring that hope back for those who need it.

Harmony House sits a few blocks south of Grand Avenue on Third Street. It isn’t just the building itself, but also an organization that operates the facility for 12-step groups providing recovery tools for those struggling.

The organization’s mission statement reads, “At the Harmony House, a house of recovery and hope, provides meeting space for groups who seek to help others in their recovery from addiction. The primary purpose of this organization is to provide a safe, clean environment that provides a culture of recovery and hope for all who attend.”

Joe Fowler is the treasurer of the Harmony House Board of Directors. He opens a door inside the entryway of the building, revealing a rectangle of tables and chairs, which wait patiently for those struggling with addiction to seek help in the hall. There are racks along the walls that are filled with pamphlets offering information on full recovery, and what the organizations do to help those who are struggling.

“The auditorium is used by these 12-step groups for workshops and regular and state events,” he said.

Twelve-step programs were created to assist those with substance abuse issues find a way to fight addiction, to find help, to find a life free from addiction and there is a wide range of programs that can address lifestyles that negatively impact a person.

“There are more than 200 12-step groups in the world. Anything that might be a life-changing lifestyle, there is probably a 12-step program out there in the world,” Fowler said. While that certainly includes drugs and alcohol, it can also include anger management or overeating, he added.

At its peak, there were many such organizations meeting at Harmony House, filling not just the auditorium, but also classrooms and even a library upstairs, as well as activities in the basement.

Three of those are Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), Narcotics Anonymous (NA) and AlAnon. AA focuses on treatment of alcohol addiction, while NA looks more at drugs specifically. Al-Anon is available for family members and friends of those addicted, including teenagers and children, those who haven’t given up hope for their addicted loved one or want to find ways to help their hurting family member.

Harmony House was originally known as the Salvation Army Citadel, but they would later move out, and program supporters saw it as an opportunity to take up residence in the building. In the mid-1980s, they found a way to make that happen through an ambitious fund-raising activity.

“At the time of the renovations to the building, Conoco was the largest corporate donor. More funds were raised through charitable family foundations as well as donations from public individuals. Phillips 66 continues to be a local corporate donor to Harmony House. ”

“They would soon house numerous programs helping community members struggling with deep addictions, as many as 12 at one point,” he said.

Time takes a toll on everything, including Harmony House, and the facility would see a long decline from problems out of their control. The basement itself once saw a lot of activity, including a kitchen facility, with a large stovetop and oven in a concession stand area. The kitchen saw many meals made for participants, but like so many parts of the building, the kitchen sits unused, a ghost of the activities that once took place there, due to problems outside the kitchen itself.

“The basement and upstairs floor were fully occupied by 12-step groups. In the basement, the HVAC went out and there were no funds to fix it, so it was unable to be used,” Fowler said.

Severe rains also caused damage to the floor.

“The heavy rains caused the basement floor drains to back up,” he said.

It takes a few flights of steps to visit the second story, once a safe place that housed many Al-Anon meeting rooms, which

There is a long history of addiction recovery groups in Ponca City, and the Harmony House building would play a lead role in those groups in most recent years.

The Salvation Army was earlier housed in the structure, and the recovery programs at that time met in a house only a few blocks away. They date back about 80 years’ worth of recovery.

“Years ago, the only 12-step group in Ponca City was AA, and they met in a little house,” he said, which was located near the current Ponca City News office. “It became inadequate due to the number of people seeking help for addiction. A larger meeting place was needed.” included a library with materials that could be checked out. Behind locked and closed doors, however, a thick layer of dust covers everything in the rooms, untouched from years past when they were alive with activity for those struggling with addiction, or maybe those supporting family members who needed help. Windows that haven’t been viewed through in years look out onto the roofs of neighboring buildings.

It didn’t help that the facility was constructed without an elevator, with only several flights of stairs to get upstairs or down into the basement. That has made it difficult for the Board of Directors to maintain the facility.

“We have too much building,” he said. “We have no elevator and unused space. We took the Al-Anon family group that was meeting upstairs and put them into the auditorium because some of the members couldn’t walk upstairs.”

Only a handful of groups are still meeting, primarily AA and Al-Anon. NA moved to a new facility several years ago.

“Now, we have five groups presently meeting, 14 meetings per week, with those groups, which equate to 772 meeting hours per year,” Fowler said. “NA moved to a local church about a year and a half ago.”

Harmony House does receive funds from those groups that still take advantage of the facility, but that is only for renting space in the facility and won’t cover needed expenses, especially in a building that has too much unused space. Likewise, funding they receive does not go back into independent recovery organizations.

“Harmony House itself is a 501(c)(3) organization with the state of Oklahoma and the federal government. We, as the Board of Directors, can receive funds from anywhere,” he said. “The 12-step groups are fully selfsupporting. They just rent our rooms.”

The rent is intentionally set at a low rate in order to accommodate the groups and ensure that they can afford to use the facility. However, this reduced rent is not sufficient to cover the costs of maintaining and upkeeping the building. Fowler explained, “Charging higher rent is not a viable solution to cover our maintenance expenses and keep our building operational. Our reliance was meant to be on corporate and private donors to sustain Harmony House.”

“Our main emphasis as a Board is to make the public conscious of us,” he said.

More than that, they want families to know that loved ones have a resource for help, as do they.

“We’d like the public to be cognizant that there is no family that has not been touched in one way or another by substance abuse, whether they be a family member, a friend or a person themselves,” he said. “With recovery, a person’s story also touches the life of everyone they touch, just as the addiction behavior also touches everyone’s life. People have for years been coming to Harmony House.”

The biggest lesson, the biggest thing Harmony House does is to not just provide a place for recovery, but to treat those with an addiction as a person, when so many might feel isolated by the addiction, a person who feels guilty of addiction, who simply needs help. Someone who sees no way out, but their family does, and seeks that treatment for them.

“Harmony House is here so people will have a place to come together as a 12-step group to help each other, to help them get well,” he said. “A substance abuser is not a bad person. They are just a sick person, and Harmony House wants to provide a place for them to meet to help themselves.”

More information: Aaoklahoma.org/locations/ harmony-house. Contact: Harmony House, Attn: Board Of Directors, P.O. Box 424, Ponca City, OK, 74602. Joe Fowler, 580-716-6366