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By Courtney Crane-Dauer
Josh didn’t think anyone would come.
His first visiting day at Serenity Recovery Network was approaching when Executive Director Allison Marchioni asked whom he would invite.
No one.
His mother had a restraining order against him. His ex-wife wasn’t speaking to him. Addiction had fractured his closest relationships.
Marchioni asked one more question. Who brought you here?
His ex-father-in-law.
“Invite him.”
Josh did. And he came
At Serenity, that starts with Shelter from the Storm, named for the Bob Dylan song. “The storm is addiction,” Marchioni says.
For the first few weeks, the outside world gets quieter. Residents attend 12-step meetings, establish routines, update résumés and prepare for employment.
But first come the basics.
“When was the last time you ate?” Marchioni asks. “Rest. Take a shower, shave your legs, put on lotion.”
Food. Sleep. Safety. Structure.
Another piece sets Serenity apart: alumni keep coming back.
They return for meetings, recovery dinners and events, showing new residents what life can look like years down the road.
Marchioni is one of them. She graduated from Serenity in 2012 and today leads with both head and heart—combining an alumna’s lived experience with an executive’s focus on Serenity’s future.
Serenity Recovery Network provides structured, abstinence-based recovery housing for men and women rebuilding their lives after addiction. Through 12-step recovery, accountability, family support, employment and education, residents begin moving toward stability and independence.
The need remains urgent.
Across Greater Cincinnati, addiction—from opioids and other drugs to alcohol—continues to disrupt lives and families. Even as Hamilton County sees a dramatic decline in overdose deaths, thousands still need treatment, support and, critically, a safe place to land.
Recovery housing provides that bridge. Yet Greater Cincinnati providers have historically turned away an average of 56 people every week because beds were full.
Initiating recovery “is just the first part,” Marchioni says. “The next is learning how to “show up for your own life.”
Three months later, Marchioni heard Josh before she saw him.
Across Serenity’s golf tournament, he was laughing. Loudly. Trading jokes with the other men. Volunteering. Belonging.
She stopped. This was the same man who had arrived painfully shy and withdrawn, convinced no one would come to visiting day.
“I saw his true personality come out,” Marchioni says.
Impact 100 Cincinnati members were there, too, volunteering at the tournament and continuing a relationship that began with a transformational grant.
Josh’s story evolved. His mother dropped the restraining order. His ex-wife began speaking to him again. His child visits.
That reconnection is intentional. Serenity’s Family Program brings residents and loved ones together to understand addiction, repair relationships and rebuild trust.
“Family Day,” Marchioni says, “that is my ‘why.’”
For more than two decades, Serenity has helped more than 2,000 men and women rebuild their lives. Today, it provides 39 recovery beds, serves more than 70 people annually, and in 2024, 77% of residents who moved out did so clean and sober.
In September 2025, Impact 100 Cincinnati invested $100,000 in Serenity’s vision. The grant helped furnish its newly renovated recovery residence with beds and bedding, refrigerators, couches, tables, chairs and appliances.
Ordinary things, perhaps. But they’re also the things that turn a building into a home.
A bed that is yours at the end of the day. A refrigerator with food inside. A couch to hang out with friends on. A table where meals are shared, plans are made and relationships begin to reconnect.
On Sept. 1, people walked through the newly refinished doors and found those things waiting — and a safe place to focus on what comes next.
And Serenity is already making room for more.
In mid-August, the organization purchased a nearby 12,000-square-foot building, creating space for job development, community resources and expanded recovery support.
Josh knows where that support can lead. So does Allison Marchioni. One found his way back to his family. The other now leads the organization that once gave her shelter.
Now Serenity is opening their doors even wider.
That’s Impact in Action.
See how Impact 100’s investment in bold, transformative projects promotes thriving communities throughout the Greater Cincinnati region.
