As opioid overdoses continue to impact lives across Milwaukee, Serenity Inns aims to reach more men seeking treatment for a substance use disorder.

Serenity Inns, a treatment center for men with substance abuse problems, recently held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new 14-bed facility in Milwaukee’s Walnut Hill neighborhood. The new facility will accommodate 56 to 60 additional men annually, said Kenneth Ginlack, Serenity Inns’ executive director.

The nonprofit’s new location at 2830 West Brown St. expands on Serenity Inns’ existing facility at 2825 West Brown St. The current location has 12 beds and will continue operations after the new facility opens.

The new facility follows Serenity Inns’ “holistic approach to treatment” and includes a gym, library, doctor’s office and other amenities, Ginlack said. The facility will also have therapists on staff.

The library has workstations with computers so residents can journal or work on their job search, Ginlack said, and the library room provides a quiet space to relax.

“We’re always looking for new coping strategies,” Ginlack said. “Exercise plays a big role in recovery.”

Ginlack said he hopes the new facility will open its doors to residents starting the second week of September.

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Fundraising campaigns

Serenity Inns is still working to raise funds for its $3 million capital campaign to finance the new facility.

The IFF, a community development financial institution formerly known as the Illinois Facilities Fund, financed the project with a $2.3 million loan.

“We really took on trust,” Ginlack said. “We took on this debt trusting the community, trusting our shareholders, trusting philanthropy and foundations that we would be able to pay it back.”

As of Friday afternoon, Serenity Inns had raised more than $1.3 million from 32 donors. Ginlack said he expects the remaining debt for the project’s costs to be paid off in the next two to three years, although the nonprofit has 15 years to do so.

Ginlack said Serenity Inns recently received money from Milwaukee County’s opioid settlement. Bradley Foundation Last year, $300,000 was also made available for the project.

TV commentator and former star player of the Milwaukee Bucks Marques Johnson is a board member of Serenity Inns’ capital campaign. Johnson speaks openly about his 22-year recovery from drug use and uses his experiences to help others going through the same struggle.

Johnson said he was using his “fame as a Bucks player, as a Bucks player whose number was retired, as a Bucks commentator who was – as Bucks president Peter Feigin likes to say – kind of one of the faces of the Milwaukee Bucks” to gain support for the Serenity Inns campaign.

“When people think about giving money, donating, whether it’s on a corporate or personal level – not that they need any kind of brand of legitimacy to do that, but just that the awareness is higher and maybe helps them decide whether or not to give, or how much to give or not, based on the fact that I’m associated not only with Serenity Inns, but because of my personal story,” Johnson said. in an interview with BizTimes.

Ginlack said Serenity Inns is looking for sponsors for the many rooms at the facility. He said within 24 hours of the Aug. 14 grand opening ceremony, Serenity Inns received $60,000 in donations and funding for three rooms at the new facility.

Ginlack said financing became a challenge in the early stages of the project. People in the development department advised him not to open the new facility and he was “not ready” due to the financial constraints the project posed, Ginlack said. The project was “underfunded” when Serenity Inns began construction on the new facility, Ginlack said.

“However, I know the need in the community was great,” Ginlack said. “People are dying from overdoses every day, and frankly, we couldn’t afford to wait.”

Need for treatment facilities in Milwaukee

Ginlack said Serenity Inns receives at least five calls a day from men seeking treatment, but there are nowhere near enough beds to help everyone in need.

Milwaukee County is short 200 treatment spaces, Ginlack said, and that shortage was “the real impetus for us” to build another facility.

“I was always afraid that the person who called and asked for a bed might die that night,” Ginlack said. “That worried me.”

According to data from the Milwaukee County Overdose Dashboard, there were 645 confirmed overdose deaths in Milwaukee County last year.

Ginlack said overdose deaths among Milwaukee’s black and brown population continue to rise. Men are more likely to be victims of overdoses, he said, so “help needs to be available.”

Serenity Inns will open an open-air clinic at the corner of North 19th Street and West Wisconsin Avenue by the end of the year, Ginlack said. There will be a counselor and a peer support specialist there for people to talk to, he said, and there will be harm-reduction products available.

He said he is pleased that the drop-in center will be located between the north and south sides of Milwaukee.

“The need is there. The need is in the community, not just on the north side, but also on the south side,” Ginlack said.

Because people often have to travel to the suburbs or outskirts of Milwaukee to receive treatment at a state-of-the-art facility, it is “important that a man can receive treatment in the neighborhood where he lives,” he said.

“We just want to make a bigger impact and help more men,” he said. “Again, 60 more men. That’s 60 more lives that can be saved. That’s 60 more families that can be reached.”

The “ripple effect” of recovery

Ginlack said he knows firsthand the “ripple effects” that substance abuse treatment can have.

Ginlack began treatment for his substance use disorder in 2007 and has been clean for 16 years, he said.

“The fact that I’m clean and now CEO of Serenity Inns speaks volumes,” he said. Ginlack has been with Serenity Inns for nearly three years.

Ginlack “prayed for meaning” during his treatment, he said, which eventually led him to become a licensed psychotherapist, clinical social worker and clinical drug counselor.

He said it was important to “come home after treatment and make a difference.”

“I never thought I was smart or intelligent or that I would even get through school. However, once I got off drugs and got my life back on track, I actually excelled in school,” he said. “So for me, it’s come full circle because I’m able to give back to men who are struggling with substance abuse disorders. When I say ripple effects, I mean families too. I was able to get my family back and now I’m part of my grandchildren’s and my child’s lives. So I know how important it is to get your life back on track and have that hope.”

Because he has gone through the recovery process himself and understands the process, it is especially important to him to “work with the men and make sure they get their hope back,” Ginlack said.