In honor of the recent National Recovery Month, staff from the Berks County Reentry Service Center and the Lancaster County Reentry Service Center in Pennsylvania shared a message of substance abuse and mental health recovery with participants and the greater community.
National Recovery Month was established by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to celebrate the gains made by those living in recovery and to educate Americans that substance use treatment and mental health services can help people go on to live healthy, rewarding lives.
This year’s National Recovery Month theme was “Join the Voices for Recovery: Celebrating Connections,” named for the challenges that 2020 has presented and representing how connecting with others can support recovery.
To recognize the month, staff from the two non-residential reentry service centers, which are operated by GEO Reentry Services, created handmade T-shirts with a unique recovery quote printed next to the National Recovery Month logo. Staff also handed out purple ribbons to participants, community members and visitors to help reinforce the month’s message: that behavioral health is essential to overall health, drug prevention works, and people can and do recover with treatment.
In addition, Ms. Martinez, Substance Abuse Counselor for the Berks RSC, baked cake pops and wrapped each one in purple ribbon. Program participants were also asked to disclose how long they had been clean, which were printed on colorful plaques and hung in the center’s lobby.
GEO Reentry’s non-residential reentry service centers help promote community reintegration, from participants’ intake and assessment, to intensive monitoring during the program, to aftercare services. Participants undergo multi-phase evidence-based programming that includes a treatment plan to address individual criminogenic risk and needs, case management and counseling, and access to community resources for employment, education, and housing.
Participants also take classes in employment readiness, job placement and vocational training, financial literacy, family reunification, pro-social decision-making and more.
This year, the Berks and Lancaster County Reentry Service Centers’ observance of National Recovery Month gave voice to an important message: that everyone in recovery and those who support them, whether they are at the center or in the community, are united in the victories they have to celebrate.
“Connection is the root of recovery — connection to self, to others and to community,” said Kim Reichenbach, Program Manager at both the Berks County RSC in Reading and the Lancaster County RSC in Lancaster. “Helping each program participant connect to themselves, their recovery process and their sober future is one of the ways that GEO Reentry continues to support and celebrate the achievements of each and every participant.”