Better Roads Recovery Ministry

Ladies’ Policies and Procedures

The Better Roads Recovery Home program is strictly a voluntary program to which one freely chooses to submit. The Ladies’ BRRM Home reserves the right to control one’s schedule, clothing, and finances and to monitor medications, per doctor’s prescription, in order to help achieve the goal of victory over addictive behavior.

The staff of the BRRM Home is here to serve the residents. We work together to keep the atmosphere comfortable and friendly. The purpose of establishing policies and procedures is to provide a safe and structured home environment with maximum accountability. The BRRM Home is a home where we will strive together to meet the spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical needs of each resident.

Table of Contents

• Admission
• Attitude
• Addictions
• Honor Code
• Schedule
• Phone Schedule
• Bookstore Schedule
• Cellular Phones
• Procedures
• RU Class
• Cleanliness
• Clothing and Hygiene
• Probation
• Restriction
• Visitation
• Off Limits Areas
• Driving
• Money
• Items Needed to Bring
• RU Ten Principles

Admission

1. The Ladies’ BRRM Home program is a six-month minimum commitment.
2. Anyone desiring to enter the BRRM Home program must go through a preliminary interview process. The director will conduct the final interview and determine whether a lady is accepted into the program.

Attitude

Work will be done willingly and cheerfully, as unto the Lord, and without complaining. A good spirit and attitude is expected at all times.

Addictions

1. The Ladies’ BRRM Home is a non-nicotine program.
2. Random drug and nicotine tests may be given at any time.

Honor Code

1. I will love God supremely.
2. I will love others as I would have them love me.
3. I will respect and protect the person and property of all peoples.
4. I will respect the positions of those who are in authority. Specifically, I will respect the institutions of the home, civil government, and the local church.
5. I will respect the truth and will not lie, cheat, or steal; nor will I tolerate those who do.
6. I will respect the right to individual opinions without malice and without compromising my own integrity.
7. I will esteem God’s kingdom and His works above my own personal conveniences.
8. I confess that my greatest needs are for wisdom, understanding, and love.
9. As a Christian, my life’s mission is the Great Commission: Go! Win! Baptize! Teach!
10. I accept that all of my decisions are ultimately my own choice, and I accept full responsibility for the consequences of my decisions.

Schedule

Phone Schedule

Phone calls are limited to ten minutes per day from the team leader’s office with a team leader present. The call may be made only to an approved family member.

Bookstore Schedule

Cellular Phones

1. No one may have a phone until she has been in the program for six months. (graduate)
2. All cell phones must be shut off during church, chapel, and RU class.
3. Laptops are not permitted in the RU Home.
4. Cell phones will be held by the RU Home staff during the first six months.
5. No resident may have any Internet on her phone at any time.
6. Cell phones may not be used after 9:30 p.m. or before 6:00 a.m.
7. Ladies are never allowed to use any other phone in any other building.
8. Ladies are forbidden to use the phones or the Internet at the AOB for any reason. Internet use is not allowed on any device in any way without the director’s approval. This includes social networking and e-mailing.
9. Cell phones may not be loaned to anyone on probation, lest the privilege of using a cell phone be forfeited for one month.
10. Phone calls are limited to ten minutes per day from the team leader’s office with a team leader present. The call may be made only to an approved family member.

Procedures

1. No one may leave chapel for any reason.
2. Lights out is from 9:30 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. Lights out means all ladies are in their rooms unless they are going directly to the washroom to use the facilities and going right back to their room.
3. There should be no loud noise before 7:30 a.m. or after 8:30 p.m.
4. Ladies are not allowed to use the showers after 9:15 p.m. All ladies need to have their teeth brushed, face washed, etc., by 9:30 p.m.
5. All ladies must leave the LRU for work in the morning no later than 9:00 a.m. Punctuality at all times of the day is expected.
6. The penalty for being tardy or violating any other policy three times in a week is the loss of phone privileges for one week.
7. No one should be touching anyone else; keep your hands to yourself. Ladies are not allowed to sit on each other’s laps, play with each other’s hair, hold hands, give each other massages, or touch each other in any other way.
8. Please inform a team leader if you are working early or late.
9. Please inform one of the team leaders to answer the BRRM Home door before or after hours. Residents may not open the door for anyone after hours (after 7:00 p.m. or dark).
10. Residents may not let a non-resident into the home for any reason without the director’s approval.
11. Any contact between Rescue Mission and BRRM Men residents must be approved.
12. Anyone leaving the premises before 6:00 a.m. or after 7:00 p.m. will be out of the program for 30 days or longer, at the discretion of the director.
13. Please print your name to sign out before leaving, and sign back in after a work detail or personal business.
14. Keep your feet off the furniture and walls.
15. Residents are liable to cover the cost of restoring damaged property caused intentionally or by horseplay, plus pay a $200 fine for vandalism.
16. Other than a cordial “hello,” there may be no communication with any males until after graduation and only with the director’s approval. This includes letters, phone calls, and texting.
17. There may be no talking during chapel, RU class, or preaching.
18. There may be no cursing, no taking the name of the Lord in vain, no vulgar language or slang, and no name calling.
19. Do not glorify past addictions.
20. There is a $25 fine for open food or drink in the non-designated eating areas.
21. Inform the team leader as soon as you think you are sick. If a lady is sick but intends to go to breakfast, she must also go to chapel. Other than meal times and chapel times, a lady who is sick must stay in bed all day until the next morning.
22. No one is allowed back into the LRU Home after Sunday school.
23. Passes should be turned in for approval at least one full day in advance. Saturday passes should be turned in by Thursday.
24. A lady may not quit a job without the permission of the director.
25. Saturdays will be considered full work days.
26. Being counted present for church mean that you are in your seat at the beginning of the opening chorus.
27. A lady leaving church during the invitation will be counted absent. Those going forward during an invitation at church must be back in their seats during the closing prayer, or they will be counted absent. No one is dismissed from church until the closing prayer.
28. The director must approve all music and reading materials. Any unapproved music that is not in harmony with the purpose of the LRU program is not allowed.
29. Recordings of music or preaching in rooms should not be audible outside the room.
30. Any unacceptable or unapproved music will be confiscated and discarded.
31. No headphones or cell phone earpieces may be worn in the common areas of the LRU Home.

RU Class

1. Each resident is required to complete seven challenges per week. If seven challenges or the required essays are not completed by Thursday night, the resident is responsible for THE EVENING kitchen duty for the following Monday through Sunday.
2. ALL residents are to attend daily RU class.
3. There may be no writing letters or personal notes during RU class.
4. There may be no sleeping or “prayer time” during RU class. RU study time is specifically for working on the RU curriculum.
5. Journaling daily is required for ALL residents.
6. Being on time to RU class means being seated with Bible, writing instrument, and curriculum books ready at the start.
7. In order to graduate, all 170 challenges must be completed.

Cleanliness

1. Rooms will be straightened each weekday morning before chapel.
2. Beds must be made crisply and without wrinkles before morning chapel. Nothing except blankets and pillows is to be left on the beds.
3. Shoes should be lined up under the bed, hidden by the bed skirt.
4. Blinds are to be raised halfway and opened to let the light in before leaving the room for morning chapel.
5. Resident room doors will remain open during the day.
6. Coffeemakers are to be stored inside the armoires.
7. Residents are responsible to empty their own trash can each day.
8. Each lady is individually responsible to clean up behind herself, including the television room, billiard room, dining area, lobby, gym, restrooms, and all areas of the home.
9. All items left unattended in these areas will be donated or discarded.
10. Please write your name and the date on any item placed in the common refrigerator or in the snack room.
11. There may be no collecting scrap or compiling extra items in rooms.
12. Nothing shall be hung or adhered to the walls or dressers in the dorm rooms.
13. Food or drink upstairs will be securely sealed in a Tupperware-type container when carried anywhere outside the designated eating areas. There is a $25 fine for open food or drink upstairs when not inside the snack room, television lounge area, or a resident room.
14. Please clean up any messes you make or see.

Clothing and Hygiene

1. Daytime dress is casual, clean, and neat.
2. No shorts or pants are allowed inside or outside of the home at any time except pajamas after 8:00 p.m. and at the gym.
3. Ladies who wish to work out in the gym may wear shorts or sweatpants underneath their normal attire on their way to the gym. In the gym, they may remove their outer clothing to work out.
4. Clothing may not have skulls.
5. Ladies must wear dress shoes and dress clothes to all church services.
6. No sleeveless dresses or tops may be worn to work at the AOB or to church. Any sleeveless apparel must have a sleeved undershirt underneath it or a sweater over it.
7. Modest, sleeveless apparel is allowed at the home, on group outings, or out shopping.
8. Ladies are not permitted to wear spaghetti strap tops downstairs or outside of the home without proper covering.
9. Necklines may not exceed three fingers’ width below the collar bone. Plunging backlines are not permitted.
10. Skirts and dresses must cover the knees in a standing OR a sitting position.
11. Flip flops are not permitted at work, church, or Friday night RU.
12. Residents are to be fully dressed outside their rooms.
13. Pajamas are not acceptable daytime apparel.
14. All ladies MUST shower daily.
15. Changing clothes is to be done in private. It is indecent for a lady to appear in various states of undress before other ladies.
16. Clothes left lying around anywhere outside rooms are considered donated to the community clothes closet.
17. Residents may wear only one earring per ear. The earring may only be in the ear lobe.

Probation

1. Probation is the six-month period from the date of entry.
2. While on probation a lady is not allowed to go anywhere except on a work detail, to church, on an approved group activity, or to RU on Friday night. Ladies on probation must go directly to church or class and right back to the LRU Home without delay.
3. Ladies on probation are permitted to walk Willow Court from the corner of the yard to Oakley Street and back for exercise. However, a minimum of two ladies may do so, and they must obtain permission from a team leader beforehand.
4. After four months in the BRRM Home, a lady may join an outreach ministry if she desires to do so, at the director’s discretion.
5. After your probation you may not start a job unless you are current on your curriculum.
6. After the six-month probation is completed, work-search days are half days on Monday and Wednesday.

Restriction

1. Restriction is a loss of privileges due to policy violations.
2. Ladies on restriction are not permitted to go anywhere outside the BRRM Home.
3. On Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, ladies on restriction go straight to the service or class and directly back to the LRU Home.

Visitation

1. Any other visitation time must have prior approval by the director.
2. Any non-family-member visitors must be approved.
3. The one visited and her visitors will use the front lobby area.
4. There may be no visitors out front or in back of the BRRM Home.
5. All visitors must dress appropriately and modestly.
6. There is a maximum of three visits per week on nonconsecutive days.
7. You must have completed one month in the program before you may start visitation privileges.
8. No non-resident is allowed to go upstairs without permission from the director or a team leader.

Off Limits Areas

Outside the BRRM Home

1. There may be no hanging out in front or back of the LRU Home or the Administrative Office Building (AOB).
2. At RU on Friday nights, ladies stay inside Building Q.
3. Ladies are not allowed to use the east side of the church for any reason before, during, or after church services. Ladies will use the west side of the church to use the restrooms and to enter and exit the building.
4. Residents are not allowed at the Renaissance Apartments, Blood Bank, Harrison Park, any hotel or motel, State Line, the home of any former RU resident, or in any church building unless on work detail in that building.
5. Any resident off probation must obtain permission each time before going to the library.
6. The bus depot is off limits at any time without a pass.

Inside the BRRM Home

1. No one is allowed in anyone else’s room at any time for any reason.
2. No one except the cook and the housekeeper is allowed in the back pantry without permission from a team leader.
3. The kitchen is off-limits except to the house lady and the cooks for that week. Ladies must obtain permission to be in the kitchen for any other reason.
4. Ladies may use the kitchen after Sunday night church to make a sandwich or a small dinner with leftovers.
5. Residents are never allowed to be anywhere other than their rooms or the restroom between 9:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m.

Driving (for Graduates)

Vehicles are for transportation directly to work and back. Any other travel purpose or destination must have an approved pass from the director.

1. Personal vehicle keys will be held by the BRRM staff during the six-month probation period.
2. BRRM ladies may not transport anyone or ride with anyone, including other BRRM ladies, in a personal vehicle without a pass from the director.

Money

1. There may be no borrowing or lending money without the director’s approval.
2. There may be no buying or selling or trading or bartering of property to fellow BRRM ladies without the director’s approval.
3. No BRRM lady pays wages for labor performed by a fellow resident without the director’s approval.
4. A lady who owns a cell phone is also responsible to purchase her own toiletries.
5. All BRRM ladies must turn in a budget sheet to track any and all money.
6. Ladies must turn in receipts to show their purchases match their budget.

Items Needed to Bring to the Home

1. KJV Bible
2. Notebook
3. Paper
4. Pens
5. 3×5 cards
6. Highlighter
7. Pillow
8. Small night light that clips to bed
9. All bathroom items
10. Towels, washcloths
11. Robe
12. Laundry detergent
13. Watch (optional)

RU Ten Principles

1. If God’s against it, so am I!
2. Every sin has its origin in our hearts.
3. It is easier to keep the heart clean than to clean it after it has been defiled.
4. We cannot fight a fleshly appetite by indulging in it.
5. Small compromises lead to great disasters.
6. Those who do not love the Lord will not help you serve the Lord.
7. Our sinful habits hurt those who follow us.
8. It is not possible to fight a fleshly temptation with fleshly weapons.
9. We lose our freedom to choose when we give in to temptation. Our consequences are inevitable and incalculable and up to God.
10. God balances guilt with blame. Accept the blame for your actions, and God, through confession and forgiveness, will remove the guilt.