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New, addiction-focused Hope Initiative to hold info session

News & Advance - 3/26/2018

In response to mounting public health concerns rooted in substance abuse and addiction, a new collaborative effort in the Lynchburg community is seeking out a choir of volunteer "Angels" to help direct people with substance abuse issues to services they can use to help them recover.

The Central Virginia Hope Initiative has sprouted from the work of concerned citizens and agency leaders who want to help combat addiction in the greater Lynchburg area. Many of those people have met for the past two years as part of the Central Virginia Opioid Epidemic Coalition - a community-focused group whose goals include reducing the stigma around addiction - but a number of other agency leaders are also collaborating to launch this new, all-volunteer program.

The Hope Initiative will be a series of free monthly drop-in sessions for anyone seeking to recover from addiction to any substance. During those drop-in sessions - which will occur the fourth Monday of every month from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. - anyone from Lynchburg or the surrounding counties can walk into the newly opened Community Health Center at 800 Fifth St. and receive individualized support in finding out what recovery services in the community might be right for them.

Participants walking into the Community Health Center first will correspond with volunteers known as Angels who'll direct them to other volunteers, known as Navigators, based on each participant's needs. The Navigator volunteers, who are directly familiar with the different services available in the community, already have been selected.

Recovery services offered by providers to clients with a variety of different health insurance coverage include peer recovery services, residential treatment programs, intensive outpatient services and support groups, according to a news release.

The Central Virginia Opioid Epidemic Coalition formed while heroin and opioid overdose rates across Virginia started a climb that continues year after year, according to numbers from the Virginia Department of Health. A Kaiser Family Foundation survey from recent years shows that around 44 percent of Americans know someone who's experienced opioid addiction.

The UP Foundation, a nonprofit that addresses drug issues among youth, is one of the partner agencies involved in the Central Virginia Hope Initiative. UP Foundation co-founder Lewis Johnston said the Hope Initiative is looking for anyone willing to come to the drop-in sessions and be an Angel.

"We want anybody and everybody involved who has a heart for this type of stuff," he said.

From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, the program will host an information session and soft opening of sorts at the Community Health Center. Interested attendees will learn more about the different roles in the Central Virginia Hope Initiative and get training, according to Mike Davidson, spokesperson for Roads to Recovery, a nonprofit connecting people with non-clinical recovery services and a Hope Initiative partner.

"The baseline for helping someone is to immediately instill hope," Davidson said. "? We're a manufacturing plant; all we manufacture is hope and opportunity."

He said the Central Virginia Hope Initiative is a complement to Roads to Recovery and other partners involved with the initiative.

"People might go to an agency, they might go to a treatment center, they might seek out therapy ? this will add one more facet of opportunity for someone to explore recovery opportunities," he said.

In the future, Brent McCraw, director of the Pathways addiction treatment center at Virginia Baptist Hospital, said he and others in the Central Virginia Opioid Coalition envision the drop-in services as something the Hope Initiative can grow from.

For now, though, the drop-in service will help foster connections to existing addiction recovery services people in the greater Lynchburg area need.

"It's sometimes very difficult to navigate the system and figure out where to go to get help," he said.