I remember the day I left treatment and took a leap of faith I prayed about relocating to a completely different area. There was one house that interviewed me and I had no money just faith and hope this time after other attempts at getting sober, just maybe if I try to do something different it just might save my life. That was in 08/2023 and I'm doing better then I have after 20 years of dealing with my addiction. Oxford House has given me the foundation under the system of operations here it's a safe, comfortable, self supporting, and self governing. The ability to have peer support living with each other in recovery in this home has given myself an other women the ability to grow again. Learn how to have leadership skills that we have also used to get promoted at work. We show up for ourselves, we take care of this home as if it was our own, we handle taking care of the finances of this home as if it was our own bank account. We switch and transition every 6 months to a different officer position by training the next person to learn so we're all taking part in the operation of the home. Peers running the house together is what makes it different and a big reason it works. I support rules that keep people safe , but rules that require staff or assume every home is a commercial business would keep Oxford Houses from operating in Virginia, even though research shows our model gets the best results. Please change those rules, and please clarify whether house members are considered the operator. The house secretary and eldest member. I don't know where I would be without the Oxford House program.