Chrysalis, the house that Neal built up
An occasional series about people creating an impact through volunteerism
By Robin Roenker
HERALD-LEADER CORRESPONDENT
A mural of brightly colored butterflies accentuates the sky-blue walls of the entry to Lexington's Chrysalis Community Center.
It's the type of room that makes you feel better just by entering it. A room that says, you're welcome here. This is a safe place to be.
And to the women who use Chrysalis House's services -- women who are recovering from substance addiction -- it says something else. A message many of them have not heard often enough: "You're a good person. You deserve treatment with dignity."
For two decades, that message has been the motivating theme behind Cornelia "Neal" Vaughan's volunteer work with Chrysalis House.
As president of the agency's board of directors for 16 of the past 18 years, Vaughan has overseen Chrysalis House's growth from a single, 12- person-capacity facility on Maxwell Street for women recovering from substance addiction into a multi-faceted agency with three transitional treatment facilities, 50 apartments, an 18,000-square-foot community center and programs to help place graduates in their own permanent housing. Currently, Chrysalis House's six facilities are home to 114 women and 100 children, with 160 more women on waiting lists.
Vaughan, who will be honored at a ceremony Friday, can detail every step of Chrysalis House's development.
She can detail them because she was there, say her fellow Chrysalis House board members, every step of the way. Raising money. Submitting grant proposals. Identifying facility sites. Recognizing the women's needs and finding partners in the community to help meet them.
But not only that. Despite her penchant for wearing pearls and high heels, she was also there to clean out shower stalls, pull weeds from the grounds and serve food in the dinner line, said Lisa Minton, Chrysalis House's executive director.
"She is the heart and soul of our organization," Minton said.
"Neal has been very inspirational in her vision," added Julie Hamilton, who assumed Vaughan's position as president of the Chrysalis House board of directors in July. "She's the first to say that this is all about the women and children. And her passion has been very contagious."
To recognize Vaughan's longstanding leadership and volunteer work on behalf of women and children in the community, the Chrysalis House board of directors is dedicating the Chrysalis Community Center, which opened in 2003 on the house's new eight-acre campus on Hill Rise Drive off Versailles Road, in honor of Vaughan.
A plaque will be hung in Vaughan's honor. Speakers will include Kentucky first lady Glenna Fletcher and Beverly Watts Davis, director of the U.S. Department for Health and Human Services Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.
No good vs. bad
"With substance abuse, it is not a good or bad issue," said Vaughan, 57. "It is a sick or well issue."
That philosophy motivates the program's holistic approach to treating the women who come to Chrysalis House. The women receive addiction treatment as well as help with reclaiming their lives, jobs and families.
When Chrysalis House first opened, "women were coming in and getting sober, but they had so many other issues," Vaughan said.
"I realized that even though they were staying in our facility for 10 months or a year, they were leaving without parenting skills or a job," she said. "If you're going to rehabilitate someone, you have to really rehabilitate them. You need to find the gaps where they need help, and help them fill those in."
Now, participants take part in required job skills classes and work one-on-one with tutors and counselors during their stay, so that when they leave Chrysalis House, they're ready to "pick up their lives, and have a productive life they feel good about," she said.
Studies of Chrysalis House participants show that 80 percent are still sober, still have custody of their children, and are still employed a year after they moved out of the apartments, Vaughan said.
Doesn't take 'no'
Much of the credit for Chrysalis House's growth goes to Vaughan's tenacity in raising support for its programs and educating the community to "break down the stigma surrounding substance addiction," Hamilton said.
"She helped open community doors to a better understanding of the disease of addiction itself," she said. "Plus, she's the type of person you can't say 'no' to. She never gives up."
In addition to her work with Chrysalis House, Vaughan is a founding member of the Fayette County Drug Court. She serves on the board of the Governor's School for the Arts and has fulfilled another of her passions -- organizing big events -- through work with the Governor's Inauguration Committee and the Lexington Ball, which supports the University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Center. She was recently appointed to the national board of the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.
Vaughan attributes her passion for community service to the example set by her parents, Richard and Cornelia Cooper of Somerset, who remain active volunteers. She credits her longevity as board president to the support and understanding of her sons Cooper and Stoll, and her husband, Derek, chairman of G.F. Vaughan Tobacco company.
Two years ago when Derek asked her what she wanted for their 30th wedding anniversary, he wasn't surprised by her answer: All new furniture for the First Step House on Chrysalis Court.
That's what she got -- along with a new strand of pearls. making
a difference
