“If I didn’t choose Resolana, I would probably be dead.”
Danielle Keath
Getting lost in the system is the last thing a prisoner in jail would want to experience. But for Danielle Keath, getting lost in the Dallas County Jail system meant getting found—and changed—through Resolana, the trauma and addiction treatment program run by Volunteers of America Texas.
By all accounts, Danielle was responsible. She grew up in Phoenix and got a full-time job the day she turned 16. Weekends were party time with family, alcohol included. It wasn’t uncommon, she says, to have a beer with her mother over the conversation. At 18, she met the man she would marry and party with whom she would sadly discover to be controlling and abusive. They moved to Texas with their daughter in 2000 and divorced six years later.
Her alcoholism spiraled out of control with her newfound freedom but at a cost. Daytime hangovers made keeping jobs difficult. She eventually landed a casino job and after work would go play poker. “I noticed people going to a back room,” she said. She found out they were smoking meth and tried it. “I became instantly hooked,” she said.
Danielle ended up homeless and walking the streets. She did a few days in the Dallas County Jail on a small possession charge, but it was a fraud charge that sent her back a second time. This time, it also led to the Resolana treatment pod. Pregnant, she wanted something different. Resolana, she said, “was one of the best decisions I ever made. I read my books and set my ‘intentions’ every week. I kept soaking in everything I was learning.” There were parenting, art, and life skill classes to fill the seven months in jail on relatively minor charges. Once it was discovered she had been lost in the system, Danielle firmly believed it was divinely ordained.
Her next step was to go into an addiction treatment facility, where her son was born. Next up was a special Dallas County program that helped her get into an apartment and start a new life. Danielle kept making steps forward, volunteering, and working in jobs that helped others with problems like hers. She also earned a degree in human services. Her own recovery success led to the judge on her case dismissing it altogether when she showed him Resolana had worked.
All the while, Danielle, sober for 11 years now, has cared for her son who has autism and has a seizure disorder. She is also the caregiver for her mother. Her journey, however, has included joy. She reconnected with her daughter and lives to help. “Every day I walk with people on their recovery from beginning to however long they want me,” she said. I can stand before probation officers and speak for peers; I can guide, help find resources, whatever they need.”