St. Anne's Home - Overview

St. Anne’s Home is an 18-bed residential treatment facility in Birmingham, Alabama, providing a habitat for women to live during a period of recovery and rehabilitation from substance abuse. St. Anne’s promotes the general welfare of each resident by providing food, shelter, clothing, acceptance and support for a lasting recovery.

Since its beginnings in May 1964 as a home for women suffering primarily from alcoholism, services have been expanded to meet the needs of women overcoming other physical, mental and spiritual disorders. Today, the home operates as a private, non-profit charity within the meaning of Act 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and the laws of the state of Alabama.

St. Anne’s Home serves a diverse clientele – from professionals with multiple academic degrees to women who are nearly indigent. Each woman’s recovery journey is individualized, based on her specific needs. Residents come from throughout Alabama and across the Southeast.

The home provides an intermediate level of care at the midpoint in the recovery process - after completion of an addiction treatment program but before a return to independent living. St. Anne’s is a state-certified facility with a highly trained staff. Admission is available only through referral from a primary care facility.

At St. Anne’s, women gain the tools and skills to prepare to successfully reunite with their families and return to the workforce. The home offers a 90-day program, plus aftercare, with open-ended options for a longer stay.

The home’s funding comes from fees assessed the women, based on their ability to pay; grants from area churches, community foundations and individuals; and the state of Alabama. There are many ways you, your family, civic organization or employer could support the mission of St. Anne’s.

History & Mission

St. Anne’s residents live in a secure and beautifully renovated historic home in a residential setting near downtown Birmingham. The three-story home is situated in a thriving neighborhood of like properties that dates to the turn of the 20th century.

Having accepted its first residents in May 1964, St. Anne’s Home is believed to be the first program for women overcoming addiction in the Southeast and the first women’s home in the United States to receive accreditation from a national organization that upholds standards for hospitals. Its initial focus was alcoholism, but today St. Anne’s also assists women who are overcoming chemical addictions.

It opened as the project of a Birmingham interdenominational women’s prayer group. During a meeting at Canterbury Methodist Church, the women were moved when a guest speaker told them that although there were programs for men battling alcoholism, there was no place to send women except to jail. Following that lecture by B.F. Simms, district supervisor and counselor with the Alabama Vocational Rehabilitation Service, a subgroup of Church Women United that included Hermolyne Liles, Polly Walters, Caroline Sparks, Lt. Col. Francis Longino and Ila Cantley took up the cause of opening a shelter for recovering women alcoholics.

The founders took pride in opening the home as an independent entity and took an inclusive approach to offering aid. In its operations today, St. Anne’s embraces spirituality but does not force a religious perspective or outlook.

In the late 1980s, a suggestion for a merger with a similar program for men was rejected in the belief that the triggers for alcoholism, the treatment and the recovery are too dissimilar. The program remains today open to women only and no children can be housed at St. Anne’s.

St. Anne’s is operated under the direction of a volunteer Board of Directors, representing a number of professions including health care. The board has sole responsibility and authority for the overall conduct of operations, including its treatment and/or prevention programs.