LYNN — Founded in 2023 by the Todisco family, Mario’s Mission is a nonprofit that strives to help individuals overcome addiction while pointing them toward the road to recovery. Now, the organization is officially opening the doors of its first sober home for women through the initiative Todisco Sober Homes.
Cara’s Place, the first Todisco Sober Home, will have an open house this Saturday, and tenants will be able to move in Aug. 19.
“My father (Mario Todisco Jr.) is going to be 32 years clean in January of 2025. He was one of three brothers who lived in East Boston. All of his brothers and his sister-in-law who lived in the two-family home all passed away of overdoses,” Mario’s Mission co-founder Marissa Capone-Todisco said.
Capone-Todisco said that her father currently works 50 hours a week at a construction job and helps her with the nonprofit on the side.
“My dad kind of had to buckle down and kind of choose, ‘Am I going to continue to live this street life of crime and robbing and selling and doing drugs, or am I going to do the right thing and move on with my life?’ He made that decision 32 years ago, and I was born about four years after that,” Capone-Todisco said.
Inspired by her father’s recovery, Capone-Todisco thought that “if he can do it, anyone can” and started the organization.
Since opening, the organization has given out Sober Living Scholarships for those newly in recovery; Essential Awards for those who have just left a 28-day program and need food or essentials; and Care Kits that are filled with hygiene products for low-income or unsheltered individuals.
After donating to different causes promoting sobriety, Capone-Todisco said that she and her father thought they should open up a home themselves.
“Cara is a family friend of ours who passed away in 2019. She left behind two babies, and she died of an overdose. So, we honored her memory by naming this house after her,” Capone-Todisco said.
Cara’s Place can house five women at a time and is still accepting applications for potential tenants.
Other than curfew, biweekly meetings, and random drug tests, Capone-Todisco said the other regulations are just “common-sense living rules” such as maintaining clean common areas and looking after your own room.
“It’s definitely not a halfway house, that’s another misconception… A halfway house is more strict than a sober home, a sober home is more relaxed, to feel like you’re in your last step before you move back into your own home. There’s less restrictions,” Capone-Todisco said. “You have free range as long as you come home and we know that you are safe.”
She added that she recommends living in a sober home to those who are completely detoxed from substances and are ready to take the next steps to rejoin society.
“It’s not just something that you can wake up and decide, ‘Hey I’m going to go for like a month, and I’m going to still drink every Saturday night,’ and then come home sloshed and then ruin the whole house,” Capone-Todisco said. “You have to be fully committed wholeheartedly.”
Cara’s Place is located at 12 Sagamore St. and is open for viewing on Saturday from 5 to 8 p.m.
To learn more about Mario’s Mission and ways to get involved, people can visit www.mariosmission.org.
