When you pull up to the cozy house on a quiet street in West Columbia, South Carolina, there’s no giveaway that the residents inside are doing some of the hardest work of their lives.
But this is no ordinary house. WeCo Cottage is a recovery house and program – a four-bed, co-ed home away from home specifically designed to assist local college students on their sobriety journey. Open since 2022, WeCo Cottage provides a substance-free living environment for its residents and a safe space for any local college or university student in recovery.
“It takes a lot of strength to stay sober in college,” observed house manager Ashley Robertson. “But with the right resources, the kids here are making it work.”
For some WeCo Cottage residents, those resources include medication assisted treatment (MAT): the use of FDA-approved medications along with counseling and behavioral therapy to achieve and maintain recovery. Examples include methadone and buprenorphine for opioid use disorder and naltrexone for alcohol use disorder.
MAT-friendly recovery houses are few and far between in South Carolina, says Robertson – which makes WeCo Cottage’s work even more important. MAT can help people in recovery live longer, stick with treatment, and keep a job, according to the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
What makes WeCo Cottage truly unique, however, is its family-like atmosphere. The tidy shared living spaces exude the warmth you’d expect in your own home: homemade art on the walls, photos on the fridge, and lush house plants. Robertson herself has regular one-on-one meetings with the residents, serving as a stable influence and a sounding board.
“Some of our residents stay just a semester or two; others are with us for their entire college experience,” Robertson adds. “In addition to meeting with me, everyone attends at least one support group per week. They have choice but there is also accountability.”
Lutheran Services Carolinas runs WeCo Cottage’s recovery program and manages the property. The cottage is owned by Brett Mealing, Jr. and Tyler Crochet, both of whom have been sober since 2011. They bought the building with the goal of creating a recovery house.
“I’m really grateful for getting sober at an early age,” says Mealing. “What’s important about this house for us is to make sure there’s a safe community place for college students who want to be sober, have fun, and start building a recovery network.”
To learn more about WeCo Cottage and LSC’s other recovery programs, contact Bethany Vause, Executive Director of Community & Rehabilitative Services, at bvause@lscarolinas.net or 803.513.2794.
Photo caption: WeCo Cottage in West Columbia, South Carolina provides a safe, friendly, substance-free living environment for up to four college students at a time. The recovery program and property are managed by Lutheran Services Carolinas.