In 1971, Nexus was established as High Hopes Rehabilitation Center, Inc., a structured living and social detoxification program. By 1974, it evolved from a halfway house into a more specific recovery program, which included therapy and life skills training, and housed 17 women. The agency was renamed Nexus, Inc., from the Greek word meaning “link,” and resolved to become a woman’s link to sobriety, independence and dignity.
Nexus was originally located on Fairmount Street near downtown, but in 1990 the facility relocated to a 12-acre campus on La Prada Drive in east Dallas to have enough room to provide a full spectrum of services for females of all circumstances and ages. In October 1990 Nexus began allowing women to bring their young children into treatment with them, thereby removing one of the biggest barriers to effective treatment for women. With this move, Nexus stepped into the forefront of treatment for women, and became one of the few drug treatment facilities in the state that allowed children to accompany their mothers. In 1991 Nexus opened a program for adolescent girls and expanded the adult women program to 40 beds.
In 1993 Nexus was awarded a federal government grant from the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT) to expand women and children’s services to include a new program for pregnant/postpartum women and their infants. This 28-bed residential program opened in December 1993, and completed the spectrum of services needed to treat chemically dependent women.
In June 1997 Nexus, with funding from United Way, opened an outpatient counseling center near downtown Dallas. The 7,500 square foot Crystal Charity Children’s Center was built on the La Prada campus in 1999. A $659,193 grant from the Crystal Charity Ball providing funding for the building, which houses the medical clinic and the child development center.
In 2003 Nexus teamed with UT Southwestern Medical School to obtain a medical director specifically trained to deal with psychiatric issues involving addiction. This program enhancement was made possible through funding by the Women’s Auxiliary of Nexus. In 2004, the child development center became a Licensed Child-Care Center, licensed by the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services (PRS).
In 2005 Nexus was chosen to participate in the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Clinical Trials Network (CTN) with the medical school and six other community agencies. The goal of the CTN is to conduct studies that will ultimately improve the quality of drug abuse treatment throughout the country using science as the vehicle.
By demonstrating compliance with the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization's national standards for health care quality and safety, Nexus Recovery Center earned the Joint Commission's Gold Seal of Approval™ on June 1, 2006. Although Joint Commission accreditation is common among for-profit drug treatment centers, it is rare in the non-profit sector. Nexus Recovery Center is well-supported in the community, by groups such as our own Women’s Auxiliary and the United Way of Metropolitan Dallas. Because of this strong community support we were able to ready the agency for the accreditation process.
Nexus has grown from a 17-bed social detoxification program to a 92-bed comprehensive substance abuse provider. In fiscal year 2007 Nexus served 173 adolescent girls, 1,028 adult women, 206 women with 394 accompanying children in a residential setting, and 1,044 outpatient clients.