At first glance the house looks like any other home. The smell of bacon greets you immediately soon followed by Hyphy, the friendly house cat who doesn’t seem to take after his name at all.

But upon following that smell of bacon into the kitchen it becomes clear that this home is a little different. Signs taped to the kitchen cabinets dictate the hours for cooking and doing laundry. A marker board depicts house rules and mentions a curfew. But it’s the talk of a 12-step program on the refrigerator that gives it away.

This is the Launching Pad, a halfway house in Sparks for women recovering from drug and alcohol abuse. Within minutes of arriving, a woman and her daughter stop by to drop off bags of clothing. Corinne, one of several women living at the house, explains that this is not uncommon.

“If you guys weren’t here, we’d be going through these bags like crazy,” she said, flinging her arms as if she were rummaging through the clothes. “First come, first serve.”

Instead, Corinne delivers the clothes to a back room where it’s just a matter of time before they are picked over.

Barbara Pierson, a recovered addict herself, founded the Launching Pad in March 2005. Since then, the Launching Pad has been helping women turn their lives around and get back on their feet.

Whether from prison, mental health centers or just off the street, Pierson said she will help anybody who is determined to change. About half of Pierson’s current residents are there because of alcohol, the other half because of methamphetamine. Once in a while a woman addicted to crack shows up, Pierson said.

“Half have criminal records and are under some form of legal supervision,” Pierson added. “The other half have a clean record and came on their own.”

All the women at the Launching Pad are there voluntarily, Pierson stressed. The court doesn’t order anyone to come.

Pierson founded the Launching Pad after reading an article on homelessness in late 2004. The article focused on the lack of attention the Reno-Sparks area gave to homeless women and children compared to men.

“There’s a lot more funding for men because they’re counted more,” Pierson said.

She explained that while there are plenty of homeless women in the area, they tend to hide their state because of the dangers it poses.

“We have more to lose,” Pierson said. “Women get raped, women get murdered. A woman’s life can be devastated by homelessness much quicker than a man’s, so we try to hide it.”

It is not difficult to see the importance of this program and the impact it has had on these women’s lives. Two graduates of the Launching Pad stopped by for a visit. They now live in an apartment that Pierson rents out, but she is only their landlord now. The women have been sober for years.

Once a meth addict, Lisa DeCunzo, 38, is now back on her feet and thanks Pierson for it. She came to the Launching Pad after being paroled from prison for auto theft. She’s been sober since 2005.

“This place helped me adjust back into society,” DeCunzo said. “It provided a foundation to stay sober. I probably might not have achieved anything without it. After a 20-year addiction, I’m clean.”

Amy Miles, 21, also moved to Pierson’s apartment after graduating from the Launching Pad. She is now living the life of a lot of people her age – she’s just trying to figure everything out.

“I’d love to be able to say I know what I’m going to do with my life,” she said. “I’m just glad I can live a drug-free life and be happy.”

Miles began using meth when she was 13 years old. By the time she was 16, she was using crystal meth, a purer and more addictive form.

“Prison and (the Launching Pad) are the only things that got me off of it,” Miles said. “Barbara’s always been there for me.”

To join the halfway house, Pierson said women must fill out an application.

“I accept pretty much everybody,” she said, “as long as they are willing to admit they have a drug or alcohol problem and are working on recovery.”

Pierson added that if she gets the feeling a woman is only coming to the Launching Pad to get the police or a concerned husband off her back, she will turn them away.

“Recovering from drugs and alcohol is very fragile,” Pierson said. “If one person is heading in the wrong direction – who has a negative attitude against recovery – she can bring down everybody.”

So Pierson runs a tight ship to make sure everybody stays on board. Random drug testing is just one way she keeps everybody in order. Though she judges each case individually, Pierson said about 90 percent of the women who test positive for drugs or alcohol are asked to leave.

Strict curfews are another house rule. The women are to be home by 10 p.m. weekdays and midnight on weekends. Upon first arriving at the Launching Pad, women are required to apply for five jobs a day until they find work. And if they’re on Social Security or some form of welfare, Pierson said they have to at least volunteer.

“They have to be productive,” she said. “They can’t just sit around here and watch TV.”

The women are also required to find a sponsor and begin the 12-step program to recovery. The step Pierson stresses most is taking up a belief in a power greater than yourself. She also said the women need to stop blaming others for their problems.

“That right there is the hardest thing to convince an addict of,” Pierson said. “They always think, ‘Oh, if I had a different mother or different friends, things wouldn’t be this way.’ We show them that it’s not their circumstances. It’s them.”

The women at the Launching Pad pay $140 a week to live there. Pierson said this covers food – most of which comes from the food bank – laundry and all other house amenities. Personal hygiene products and transportation are the responsibility of the individuals.

“That probably covers half of the overhead,” she added. “That’s as cheap as I could possibly go and still keep our doors open.”

While the Launching Pad has come a long way since opening its doors three years ago, it hasn’t been easy. State requirements have already caused the loss of half of the center’s beds.

“The state of Nevada makes it extremely difficult to run legal, licensed halfway houses,” Pierson said. “The bar is so high.”

Pierson estimated that the Launching Pad needs $60,000 for all the mandates and renovations.

“We need to add a bathroom, we need a laundry room, we need an interior sprinkler system,” Pierson said as she sat in the house’s office. Behind her is a marker board listing these needs. There’s also a “wants” column.

First on this list is making the “dorm” into two rooms. Once a garage, the dorm was transformed into a large room. Seven beds now fill this room. The occupied beds are surrounded by pictures of loved ones.

“This is more of a privacy issue,” Pierson said. “We want to make the dorm into two rooms so the women are more comfortable.”

Pierson said as soon as extra money becomes available, this will be the first thing done. She is fortunate to have members of the community pitching in every now and then to help with such funding. In February, local artist Jim Zlokovich – artist of the massive cloudscape in downtown Reno – held a silent art auction in the Launching Pad’s benefit.

Using 15 women as human paint brushes – from a fire chief to a lawyer – Zlokovich first painted their bodies and then painted around the impressions their bodies made on the canvases. The result was 14 vibrant canvases and one multi-media piece with blue neon lights. Dubbed the Falling Ladies art auction and gala, the event raised about $2,300.

“It doesn’t sound like much, but when you don’t have anything it’s huge,” Pierson added. “Especially when you’re living on a shoestring and juggling bills.”

Aside from providing a stable living environment where women can get clean, Pierson’s duties extend much further. She also helps them get driver’s licenses and cars and helps find them an appropriate living situation after they leave the Launching Pad. One woman, Melissa, 25, is in limbo waiting to find such a place. A meth addict for 10 years, Melissa knew it was time to turn her life around when she had her baby in prison. Upon her release she found Pierson and has been living at the Launching Pad since November. She’s now sober and looking to move on.

“I’m trying to find a stable environment and a good neighborhood,” she said. “I’m going to stay here until I find it.”

For more information on the Launching Pad, visit www.thelaunchingpadnv.com.