Anchor Recovery Community Center Opens in Pawtucket
Friday, December 03, 2010
With much fanfare and a grateful recovery community, the Providence Center opened the doors to the Anchor Recovery Community Center in Pawtucket yesterday evening, a place where “community members, people in recovery from substance abuse problems, their family members and friends can come together to maintain recovery and change and build new lives.” “It’s been a long time coming and a lot of challenges the way, but we’re finally seeing it come together, and it’s incredible,” said James Gillen, Director of Recovery Services at the Providence Center. The center, the first of its kind in the state, will offer employment and education services, wellness activities, yoga and art classes, movie nights, and more, helping to pave the path of success for recovering addicts. The crux of the center, said Gillen, is its peer-to-peer support approach. It’s not uncommon, and all too easy, he explained, for recovering addicts to return to situations that are unhealthy and ultimately, act as inhibitors to recovery.
RI Has Highest Rate of Substance Abuse in the Country
According to the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Rhode Island has the highest rate of substance abuse in the country, estimating that alcohol and drug problems cost U.S. tax payers as much as $300 billion annually. The Providence Center reports that engagement in meaningful community activities has been proven an effective as a means dramatically reducing the rate of relapse for people with substance abuse problems for the long-term. Gillen says that by joining forces with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Pawtucket’s faith-based community and other recovery services throughout the state, the Anchor Recovery Community Center is adopting a comprehensive methodology helping people in recovery win their daily battle.
