GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — Guiding Light, which has long helped men navigate the road to recovery from addiction, is expanding its program to include services for women.

The organization in Grand Rapids recently bought two homes to be used as transitional, sober-living residences for women after they complete inpatient treatment.

“It’s one of those calls that we would typically get over the years: ‘You’re doing this great work. You have a great success rate. And then what about women?'” Guiding Light Executive Director Brian Elve said. “…We had some places we could recommend them but we started kind of asking other people around and we really felt like there was a definite need for women to get help in recovery, too.”

He said one goal of the dedicated housing is for women to feel safe as they continue to recover.

“We want them to feel like there’s respect and dignity and have a place where they can be and do the things necessary to continue the recovery journey, and we think these houses are perfect,” Elve said. “We’ll probably have a house mom that kind of watches over the house with the women and there’ll be certain things that they have to meet every week. We think it’s a great place for them to continue their recovery journey.”

He said a new environment dedicated to getting sober can help prevent people fighting substance abuse from slipping into old habits.

“We want people to say, ‘Hey, I want to get this right. I really want my life to change,'” he said.

Guiding Light is taking donations of basic necessities and toiletries to support its new ministry and ongoing efforts to help men combat addiction. Learn more about donating at the organization’s website.

*Correction: A previous version of this article misspelled Elve’s last name. We regret the error, which has been fixed.