NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The Brien Center has been awarded a new five-year contract from the state Bureau of Substance and Addiction Services for a peer recovery support center. 

 

Located at 37 Main St., the center will be an accessible hub for peer support and substance-use services as well as a support center for families affected by addiction. The center will support traditional and nontraditional pathways to recovery, while also providing hope and promoting wellness.

 

"The peer recovery support center will be operated by peers, largely on a volunteer basis, and will offer education, information, resources, social events, recreational activities and a variety of wellness groups,” said M. Christine Macbeth, president and CEO of the Brien Center. "It will provide its members and all those involved with the opportunity to build their own individual, social, and community support to help prevent relapse and promote long-term recovery from addiction."

 

The program will operate 50 hours a week to include weekdays, weeknights and weekends. Four full-time staff will be on site, including a program director, program coordinator, volunteer coordinator and a recovery coach.

 

Designed to accommodate up to 100 people at any given time, the center will include a large meeting room, living room area, two offices, kitchen and restrooms.

 

"This center will add substantially to our continuum of care in the North County area,

supporting the important work being done through our outpatient substance use disorder services at 124 American Legion Drive and at Keenan House North, our recovery home in North Adams," Macbeth said. 

 

The new program is expected to launch this fall. The City Council was given a presentation on the center last week. 

 

"The Brien Center wishes to thank The HEALing Communities Study for their support and advocacy," said Paul Hickling, senior vice president of service operations at the Brien Center. "This entity is a multiyear study under a cooperative agreement supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health. Both North Adams and Pittsfield were selected for this program, due to the crisis level of opioids in our communities. Over 20 coalition partners have come together to provide 'boots on the ground' solutions to combating substance use disorder.”

 

North Adams and Pittsfield are among more than a dozen communities in the commonwealth participating in a yearlong study, a program of the National Institutes of Health's Helping to End Addiction Long-term Initiative. North Adams received a grant of $500,000 of which $200,000 has been spent on providing naloxone boxes to organizations and at various points in the city to prevent overdoses. The balance will support the new peer recovery center.