Minnesota Board
and Lodge
The Center of Human Environment strives to provide a comfortable, attractive home for the recidivist chemically dependent with the expectation that through an atmosphere of acceptance and respect and a measure of self-worth that a dignified lifestyle will be regained. We are a non-profit agency serving the entire state of Minnesota.
CHE Offers
The center is a serene, sober country home for adults needing a semi-structured, semi-independent living environment with supportive services. We set up and monitor medications through a registered nurse and staffing available 24 hours a day.
Kitchen & Food
We have phenomenal cooks that create amazing meals at the center. Our salad bar is fantastic. We also have concession products and a vending machine. Everyone is guaranteed a nutritious three different meals per day and two varieties of snacks.
Recreation
We have many recreational rooms and various recreational activities to ease through stress. You can have your family, friends, and community groups to join you. We even have a house dog to keep all of our residents' company.
About Us
The Center of Human Environment is a non-profit organization that exists to provide a protected environment that is a safe, sober home for chronic chemically dependent persons. The majority of people who come to the center have no other place to go.
In most cases, the residents’ family members have given up hope of them ever staying sober and are no longer a part of their lives. The center takes them in, provides a safe, clean home for them, and in most instances becomes their family.
The center has been in existence since 1977 as a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization to provide a protected environment for the chronic chemically dependent persons who may have physical and mental disabilities.
The initial start-up for the facility was possible through dedicated volunteer work of individuals serving on the Mahnomen County Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, along with a grant through Northwest Mental Health Center in Crookston, Minnesota.
From its humble beginnings as a 9-bed facility at the ranch to the fantastic 28-bed facility to which it has evolved, the serene country location where the center now resides was purchased in 2003, and the building was constructed.
We have a mission here that we genuinely believe in. There is so much that we have to offer, we simply are not just another facility. While we would enjoy nothing more than having our residents recover and move on to a life beyond the center, that is not always the case.
We have several residents that have been with us for many years and will probably remain here for as long as they can function without extreme care. We take great pride in being family, which is precisely why we have many long term residents at the center.
Residents are men and women with chronic alcoholism, developmental disabilities, and severe and persistent mental illnesses. The center welcomes long and short term residency.
The Center of Human Environment is a licensed board and lodge facility, not a treatment program. When residents are people with chronic chemical dependency, the AA philosophy is utilized. The center is operated per U.S. Dept. of Agriculture policy, which does not permit discrimination because of race, color, age, sex, handicap, or national origin.
Staff
Our staff is comprised of two permanent employees, plus many more professionals, social workers, interns, nurses, therapists, and dependable assistants. We are staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Brenda Swanson
Office Manager
Darby Miller
Executive Director
No alcoholic or other non-prescribed drugs
are allowed on the premises.