Community in Crisis awarded state grant of $100,000.

Community in Crisis (CiC), based in Bernardsville, NJ, has been awarded a state Community Peer Recovery Center (CPRC) grant of $100,000 per year. The award was issued by the state of New Jersey Department of Human Services Division of Mental Health and Addiction Services and funded through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) State Opioid Response to Grants (SOR) funding. The purpose of this grant is to implement a regional Community Peer Recovery Center where individuals can access peer support, information about substance use disorder treatment, recovery support services, and information about other community resources in a supportive, substance-free environment. The Community in Crisis CPRC, serving the entire county of Somerset, will provide peer-to-peer recovery support services that aim to prevent recurrence of substance use and promote sustained recovery.

To implement the grant, two positions at CiC were filled: Sarah Popa has been hired as the fulltime Peer Services Supervisor and David Martinak as the parttime Recovery Advocate. The CPRC will be able to offer extended hours that cover some evenings and weekends. Ken Musgrove, Director of Recovery Support, said, “We are honored and extremely excited to have been selected as the Community Peer Recovery Center for Somerset County. Being able to offer a warm, welcoming, stigma-free environment that allows individuals of all backgrounds to come together to receive peer-to-peer support and to be connected to social, educational, and recreational opportunities is a huge step in the right direction in reducing the incidence and consequences of substance use disorder. With these increased resources, we will be able to expand our successful holistic approach to the entirety of the recovery process that aims to improve overall wellness.”

Substance use and misuse continues to be a serious condition that has an impact on the individual, their family members, school, work relationships, and more. In the past 12 months, more than 100,000 individuals in the U.S. died of an opioid overdose with the 35-44 year old age group the hardest hit. Opioid use has become a pervasive problem throughout New Jersey impacting all racial, ethnic, age, and socioeconomic demographics. According to the 2018 Treatment Episode Data Set, New Jersey is fifth in the nation for primary heroin admissions for persons aged 12 and older and seventh in the nation for other opiates. As the number of individuals seeking treatment continues to be on the rise with this current opioid epidemic, the need for peer run services and recovery-based centers offers individuals a supportive, environment where they can engage and get involved with the recovery community.

Community in Crisis began in 2013 following the overdose deaths of two young adults in the Somerset Hills community. The organization, a coalition of community agencies, organizations, schools, churches and concerned citizens, offers bi-weekly support groups for families struggling with addiction, innovative educational opportunities in the school environment, medicine take-back days, town hall meetings, and more. Additionally, Rutgers Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy and the Horizon Foundation have partnered with Community in Crisis to produce and scale out an evidence-based community toolkit for implementation by communities across NJ.

For more information on this, please contact Ken Musgrove at kmusgrove@communityincrisis.org

For more information or to get involved with CiC, please contact Community in Crisis at info@communityincrisis.org or go to www.communityincrisis.org.