HOUSTON – As people enjoy a beautiful day at Levy Park, Danay Jones is enjoying another beautiful day of sobriety.
“I got sober on April 10 of 2020,” she said.
The years before were blurry, she recalled.
“It was a lot of partying, a lot of being out,” Jones said.
She says excessive drinking led to problems overflowing in her life.
“There were a lot of hospitalizations, mental health issues, arrests,” Jones recalled.
She said at one point, she spent seven days in the Harris County Jail.
“Sleeping on the floor, there were no mats,” Jones described. “It was just something that changed me forever.”
She said the pandemic gave her time to address her mental health and substance abuse issues. Jones said she went back to school and became a licensed chemical dependency counselor.
Then, in 2022, she created Sober Girls Houston.
“There was something to see that there were other women in the same place, looking for ways to go out and feel safe,” she said.
“What does that mean— feel safe,” KPRC 2′s Sabirah Rayford asked.
“To go out and enjoy it without it being alcohol-centered,” Jones responded.
The group has over 200 members who often enjoy activities like roller skating and picnics.
“We don’t need alcohol to have fun, we are fun,” Jones said.
Sarah Strang is the Program Director of the Mobile Crisis Outreach Team for the Harris Center. She says their organization just launched a boots-on-the-ground program to go door to door helping people with substance abuse issues.
“I think that the biggest thing for people that are trying to stay sober and live a life of recovery is having other peers or other people that are supportive of them not drinking,” Strang said.
“If I didn’t have my sober circle I can tell you right now, I would not be here,” Jones said.
“Where do you think you’d be,” KPRC 2′s Sabirah Rayford asked.
“I’d be dead for sure,” Jones said. “There were suicide attempts during my mental health issues where I didn’t feel I had any value at that time and I had to really look inside myself and realize that everything I was searching for I already had.”