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Darmina Bailey’s path through The Salvation Army’s programs led her from recovery to employment and education.
When Darmina Bailey found The Salvation Army in 2023, she had already spent much of her life navigating responsibility and loss. She became a teen mom at 14 and lost her brother to an overdose just two years later. Through grief and broken relationships, alcohol became her way of coping—a pattern that felt impossible to escape.
“I always thought that I would just have to live with the drinking that I did, even though it really ruined my life,” Bailey said. “I never thought that I could get any help for it.”
But one day, she decided to look for help and came across The Salvation Army Adult Rehabilitation Center (ARC) in Denver. She entered the program in September 2023.
“It was a six-month program, and I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a long time,’ but I was just exhausted with all the drinking and leaving one job, going to another job, and arguing with this person…I had no fight left in me.”
Bailey committed to the program—working in the warehouse and taking classes, including anger management.
“It helped me to better cope with my emotions and everything,” Bailey said. “It just really helped change my life.”
Bailey graduated from the ARC in March 2024 on the same date her brother had died of an overdose 28 years earlier.
“It meant a lot to me…that didn’t have to be my story,” she said. “I was really proud of that.”
But her journey with The Salvation Army didn’t end there. During her time at the ARC, she learned about The Salvation Army’s culinary arts training program in Lodi, California. After graduating, she continued working in the warehouse for three months to save money for the move.
“When I heard about the program, I was like, ‘Well, that would be a new start,’” she said. “I just thought that it would be great not to have any distractions and to just go to a new place. I’d never been to California. My son is grown. I really didn’t have anything to stay in Denver for, so I just thought, ‘Why not?’”
In July 2024, she moved to Lodi and into The Salvation Army’s Transitional Living Program, where she still resides today. She became a student in the culinary training program and met a mentor along the way.
“I met Chef Barry. He taught me cooking. He helped me believe in myself again and was really patient with me when I was learning,” Bailey said. “His reference actually landed me a job.”
Bailey graduated from the culinary training program in December 2024 and started working in the kitchen the following month at Arbor Rehabilitation and Nursing Center.
“I get to work with the elderly and make snacks and help prepare meals for them and drop off their snacks,” she said. “I’ve gotten to really get close to some of the residents there.”
But her determination to keep moving forward didn’t stop there. Bailey decided to pursue something new.
In September 2025, she began dental assistant training.
“Ever since I’ve been sober, I’ve wanted to see what else I could do. So I did culinary, I got that job, and then I just always had been interested in doing the dental assistant training and I just kept putting it off,” she said. “One day, I just got up, and I was talking to the case manager, and I was like, ‘I think I want to go back to school,’ and she’s like, ‘Well, I’m your biggest cheerleader,’ so I signed up for that.”
“It might seem like it’s hard right now…but just stick with it. Little by little, you’ll feel a change in yourself.”
Darmina Bailey
She is still in school and begins her externship in April.
“It’s going really well,” Bailey said. “Life is just a lot different than what I imagined.”
Lodi Corps Officer Major Richard Pease believes Bailey’s journey reflects the transformative power of The Salvation Army’s holistic approach.
“She’s a tremendous example of the life transformation The Salvation Army makes possible when someone chooses recovery,” Pease said.
Today, her life looks far different than it once did, and her brother remains her motivation.
“I just think about how my brother would have wanted me to go on and know that there was something out there better,” Bailey said. “I just didn’t want to settle. I didn’t want to keep throwing away my life.”
She also had the support of The Salvation Army every step of her recovery.
“I don’t know where I’d be without them,” Bailey said. “They changed my way of thinking, and it was very gradual. They helped me rediscover who I was and the things that I could do. I really just don’t know how to repay them. They just set me on the right path.”
Now, she doesn’t want anything to get in the way of her progress.
“I’ve lost so much time with the drinking and the craziness, and now that I’m sober, it’s like the fog has cleared. I just feel like the things that I’m capable of doing, I should do them,” Bailey said. “You only got one life, and I just feel so inspired now that I’m not drinking. I’m not sad. I’m not in a bad relationship. I don’t have anything tying me down. So I’m like, ‘Well, just go out there and see what you can do.’ I’m trying to find joy in my everyday life.”
Next on her list is dental hygiene school in the coming years.
“I want to be self-sufficient,” she said.
And once she is, she hopes to give back by becoming a sponsor for a woman in recovery. Her advice?
“It might seem like it’s hard right now…but just stick with it,” Bailey said. “Little by little, you’ll feel a change in yourself.”
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