Erin Page has not used drugs or alcohol in nine months.
The 42-year-old mother of two says she has long struggled with opioid and alcohol abuse, but it wasn't until she faced the threat of losing her three-year-old son that she decided to get sober.
"I just wanted to give my life a chance," she said. "I have a lot of potential, and it took a long time for me to realize that."
Page has begun working part time as a recovery coach at the Next Step Resource & Recovery Center, which just moved to a larger home. A ribbon-cutting celebrated the relocation to Bay Street, near the ferry terminal in St. George.
The center is part of Community Health Action of Staten Island, which provides a range of behavioral health care and social support services. The center offers around-the-clock recovery coaching and support, alcohol- and drug-free social and recreational events, and support groups for substance abusers and their families.
"When somebody makes the decision to move along that trajectory of their life, they don't necessarily do it Monday through Friday, 9 to 5," Community Health Action of Staten Island Executive Director Diane Arneth said.
The city health department said the citywide overdose rate declined 3 percent in 2018 thanks to the life-saving antidote Naloxone.
But treatment advocates say the opioid crisis is still raging on Staten Island.
"We continue to have very high rates of opioid overdose deaths," Arneth said.
And that's why the head of Community Health Action says support centers like this one are so important.
The Staten Island district attorney's office says 53 people have died from overdoses in the borough so far this year, and 115 other deaths were prevented thanks to Naloxone.
Recovering addicts like Page hope centers like this one will help others like her get and stay sober.
"An addict is out there 24/7," Page said. "It could be 3 o'clock in the morning and they have nowhere to go, or we get a phone call that somebody's in the hospital, they OD'ed — we run there."
The new facility was created with nearly a quarter-million dollars in city and state funding.
Officials say they expect to help about 300 clients a month at the center, a number they hope will eventually begin to fall.