ABOUT US

In 1968, a group of concerned citizens recognized the need to establish a recovery program for alcoholics in the Heart of Texas. These people organized and founded the Freeman House, located

at 1401 Columbus Avenue in Waco, Texas. The program opened its doors to provide rehabilitation services for adult male alcoholics on January 1, 1969.

The three story Georgian style mansion, constructed as a private home in 1911, derived its new name from Macon W. Freeman. As one of the original members of Alcoholics Anonymous in Texas, Freeman later became the first Executive Director of the Texas Commission on Alcoholism. The original Freeman House is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

With the acquisition of the Neatherlin Carriage House, the program began admitting adult female alcoholics on January 1, 1975. The Carriage House is now the site of a special program for veterans of the United States Armed Forces.

The Freeman House, later renamed The Macon W. Freeman Center, further expanded to meet the needs of growing numbers of chemically dependent females seeking rehabilitation. A fashionable “turn of the century” mansion located next door at 1425 Columbus Avenue was acquired in 1987, making it possible to increase the residential capacity from eight to twenty-three women. Although much of the program is still coeducational, the Women's program addresses “gender specific needs” and problems facing the female alcoholic/addict. Problems such as. co‑dependency, role conflict, sexual abuse, and unrealistic self imposed or societal expectations are addressed in specialized therapy groups.

A Women and Children’s Residential Program was dedicated in 1993 at the Dorothy Goodrich Jones House at 326 N. 14th St.. This program provides unique services to pregnant women receiving drug and alcohol rehabilitation services. Recovering women with up to two children under age 8 are accepted into this program. Parenting education and vocational training are included in the three month course of residential treatment.

The Macon W. Freeman Center, is committed to meet the broad spectrum of needs facing those who suffer from chemical dependency. After thirty years of service, the Freeman Center Board of Directors and professional staff strive to stay abreast of residential treatment modalities that best suit the needs of the recovering alcoholic/addict. Through affiliations with Baylor University and McLennan Community College, The Freeman Center has expanded it’s mission to become a Clinical Training Institution. Graduate level internships in the helping professions of Social Work and Psychology prepare clinicians with practice skills for the treatment of addictions.

The Freeman Center is a private, nonprofit, tax exempt 501(c)(3) corporation, which has provided treatment and rehabilitation for recovering alcoholics/addicts since January 1, 1969.

The Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse has licensed The Freeman Center to provide Intensive Residential and Residential Treatment services for 110 clients. The Outpatient Program provides therapeutic services to over 300 additional clients who do not require the residential level of care.. A professional food service staff tends to the nutritional aspects of recovery. Clients are each assigned daily responsibilities as a part of the group living program.

The Freeman Center grounds are comprised of three living facilities; the men's unit at 1401 Columbus; the women's unit at 1425 Columbus; and the carriage house at 320 North 14th (immediately behind the men's unit). The buildings may be referred to in this Client's or Resident's Handbook or in daily conversation as follows: "1401" is the men's TTC unit (sometimes called the "big house"); "1425" is the women's unit (or program office); "1515" is the men's unit; "320" is the carriage house or VA (veteran's) unit; "326" is the Jones House for women's services; "apts." are the men's duplexes on Barnard; "401" is the women's transitional center on North 16th; and "1619" is the D.E.A.R. or detox unit.

The Freeman Center provides a chemical free environment in which professional guidance and peer support allow each client to work toward achievement of individualized treatment goals. A multi-disciplinary staff of professional Social Workers, Psychologists, Nurses, Licensed Chemical Dependency Counselors, Licensed Professional Counselors, and consulting Physicians provide the highest quality of care to clients regardless of their ability to pay. We endeavor to help each resident develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes which will permit recovery from addictive diseases. The foundation for personal growth and improvement will be to learn:

1. to work toward maintenance of a wholesome living environment which supports the ideals of sobriety and personal and social adjustment;

2. to accept that we are responsible for our own actions and behaviors, and to respect the dignity of human life in self and others;

3. to support the ideals of Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous and the necessity of working the 12-step program of recovery;

4. to foster, through an appreciation and acceptance of spiritual concepts, the tools needed to achieve the permanent change to sober living;

5. to develop daily living skills for improved mastery of problems in living; and

6. to live in an therapeutic setting where peer socialization will help resolve interpersonal problems and to develop sober relationships with peers and authority.

The Freeman Center offers a continuum of care including an adult residential treatment program. Each individual client is respected as an adult who must master his or her own self governance. In individual counseling, group therapy, educational settings, recreation, and interpersonal relationships, one primary guiding principle is stressed,

"treat others the way you want them to treat you..."

This element of our therapeutic milieu will be modeled in staff interactions with the clients and their professional colleagues. We will attempt to instill this behavior pattern in every client’s interactions with fellow residents, staff, and significant others. A Cognitive-Behavioral Approach to treatment will address errors in thinking which contribute to dysfunctional social behavior and antisocial patterns of living consistent with substance abuse.

Although poor living habits can take a short time to develop, healthy interpersonal skills take a longer period to be acquired successfully.. The Freeman Center offers a ninety day treatment program to give clients the opportunity to learn to "live" with the tools outlined above.

Goals

The Principal Goal of The Freeman Center is to establish a comprehensive continuum of quality treatment services to assist in the recovery of adult men and women suffering from alcohol or other drug abuse and addiction.

The Freeman Center should become a recognized focus of treatment support for alcohol and drug abusers in the Heart of Texas Region. Treatment services should expand to meet the needs of the community as the financial support becomes available.