Recovery is for everyone

3 years ago

Recovery Aroostook, a grassroots community organization, will celebrate National Recovery Month by sharing stories of recovery throughout September. The focus is to celebrate all people who make the journey of recovery possible by embracing the 2021 theme: “Recovery is for Everyone: Every Person, Every Family, Every Community.”

Throughout September, you will read life-changing stories of people who have found strength and hope through recovery. Our hope is that you join us as we come together and make our community stronger by celebrating the accomplishment of recovery. Mental health and substance use challenges affect all communities. With commitment and support, everyone impacted can embark on a journey of hope and recovery for improved health and wellness in all areas of life. 

Recovery Awareness Month activities, like storytelling, can help us all become more aware and able to recognize the signs of mental health and substance use disorder. Sharing success can encourage and inspire people in need of recovery services to seek help. 

Joining a recovery community allows those in recovery to connect with and help others. Knowing that your story and your engagement in a recovery community helps others through their own recovery process can have significantly positive effects on self-worth and self-efficacy.

Mental health and substance use challenges affect all communities. With commitment and support, everyone impacted can embark on a journey of hope and recovery for improved health and wellness in all areas of life. 

Recovery is for everyone: every person, every family, every community.

About Recovery Aroostook

Recovery Aroostook, founded in 2011, has partnered with health care agencies and law enforcement to support recovery through events and education, sponsoring widespread availability of life-saving Naloxone, supporting local drop-in recovery community centers, and establishing recovery houses for men and women ready to embark on the next chapter of their story. 

Most recently, Recovery Aroostook, with the Center for the Advancement of Rural Living  nd the Aroostook Mental Health Center, received a major federal grant entitled, “Building Communities of Recovery,” which will take local recovery activities to a new level by promoting a “recovery” identity, rather than that of “substance use” — a critical component to a healthier community overall. 

The BCOR project will help develop, build and expand individual recovery support services in the county through peer recovery support and will work towards reducing community stigma surrounding substance use and recovery. New recovery efforts will extend to the St. John Valley, where there are currently no recovery community centers or support organizations.

To find out more about the pathways to recovery, and supports available for individuals and family members, find us on Facebook @roads2recoverycommunitycenter @recoveryaroostook @carlcenter or email recoveryaroostook@gmail.com.

Kristen Henry is the Community Engagement Coordinator of Building Communities of Recovery at The Center for Advancement of Rural Living in Caribou. Contact her at kristen@carlcenter.org.