08/07/2026
Alyssa’s history with Laurel Hill goes back further than most people would guess. Her first time coming here was almost eight years ago, when an early case manager helped her get started. That round didn’t stick. She wasn’t ready yet.
This time has been different. For the past five or six years, Alyssa has been back, and this round is the one where everything changed.
She came to Laurel Hill while living in Cottage Grove, struggling with her mental health, without a car, and needing to get back to Springfield. She was homeless. Getting comfortable took a long time. She was anxious just walking into a group, terrified of talking to people. She took the Ready to Rent class twice before she got housed. She took classes on social skills and learned, slowly, to be vulnerable enough to get herself out of what she calls “the cage” she’d put herself in.
She’d been on a waiting list for about two years before she got in. Once she did, she says it was the first time in her life someone laid out every resource available to her instead of making her ask for help she wasn’t used to asking for.
Today, she’s stable — on her medication, in therapy, and for the past year and a half, living alone in her own apartment for the first time in her life, with her dog. She credits her case manager Michelle by name, calling her “a superstar” who meets people where they are. She also named peer support staff Chelsea, Bonnie, and Misty as people who made the process feel less frightening.
Alyssa was an award winner at this year’s Inspiration Awards — something she says she almost couldn’t believe was about her. And she’s graduating from the program, moving on to more community-based services. Before she leaves, she’ll keep coming back for one thing: the weekly Dual Diagnosis Anonymous meeting she now facilitates. For someone who once couldn’t speak in a group, leading one is something she never thought she’d do.
