Hello and welcome to living in the Lehigh Valley, where our focus is your health and wellness.

I'm your host, Brittany Sweeney.

Change on Hamilton Recovery center in Allentown recently celebrated its grand reopening.

The center offers a safe space and important resources for those recovering from drug and alcohol addiction and their families.

Our own Grover Silcox paid a visit to learn more.

He joins us now.

Welcome, Grover.

Glad to be here.

Great to see you.

And so tell us about the center in this grand reopening.

Change on Hamilton Recovery Center.

Opened in a storefront on Hamilton Boulevard in 2021 while the Covid pandemic was raging.

And it was created to give folks in recovery, a safe place for peer support and really just a safe haven.

And so they closed to expand and improve.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

And they were very excited about the new reopening.

I'm sure the whole community was celebrating the reopening.

They were the change on Hamilton, grand reopening offered folks a chance to see the newly renovated recovery center with expanded resources and critical harm reduction programs that serve individuals and families across the Lehigh Valley.

Change on Hamilton has been a central.

Part.

Of my recovery.

It is life changing for me.

I was in a place of desperation where I needed an organization like this, and I needed the love that was inside of this room because I was fighting for my life.

In the first week of December.

Those in recovery from addiction and those who serve them, gathered to celebrate the grand reopening of change on Hamilton.

A community recovery resource center on Hamilton Boulevard in the heart of downtown Allentown.

This is kind of our new hub.

It's a lot more space and newly renovated.

Updated.

The center began on the first floor of this storefront building on Hamilton Boulevard.

Now it includes the newly renovated second floor to serve more community members.

We opened the doors here in March of 2021.

We started out on the first floor on the lower level.

Change on Hamilton is a program that is fully funded by Lehigh County Drug and alcohol.

So we appreciate them.

Let's give them a big hand.

Keith Smith, the center's program director and a man in recovery for 22 plus years, served as the celebrations host and emcee, introducing invited speakers including community members, staff, dignitaries and the resource community.

So without any further ado, I like to introduce to you our county Commissioner for Lehigh County Drug and Alcohol, Mister Geoff Brace.

Good afternoon.

This is truly a wonderful moment.

It's been great to see the evolution of the programs, the support for recovery here in our community.

The funding that makes this celebration possible, quite honestly, is opioid settlement fund dollars.

The settlement funds have come through, and one of the first pieces of the the the equation that we saw as needing attention was active recovery services and change.

Change on Hamilton was a vehicle ready to to get get to work on that in our community.

And as a clinical supervisor, I'm always looking for resources, not just for the clients that serve under me, but for all the clients at MARS.

And this is one of my go to places.

I have a family, a home, businesses.

I work with some of the most influential people in the world, and that doesn't happen if I didn't have the support and the foundation that places like this gave me in the beginning.

The honorable mayor of Allentown , Mayor Tuerk Our responsibility at the City of Allentown is to create a safe and clean and healthy environment that promotes the well-being, underscore, well-being of all of our residents, that that's what we do as a city through public works, through public safety.

But that's just us creating the environment.

It's this group of people that come together as a community to make all that happen.

One of the things in my history as a therapist and a clinical director that I learned from my patients is when you leave the community that you are using substances with behind.

You need a soft place to land.

And this center is that for you, where you can meet happy people that can help you with your recovery journey.

Other peers who are also on the recovery journey and really keep your recovery on a solid footing.

The center offers a safe haven and help for anyone in search of recovery.

We get you signed in and then we find out what your needs are.

I usually meet with them and then if they need, recovery support, I connect them with our CRS team.

If they need case management, maybe they need to apply for Snap benefits.

So I connect them with our case manager.

In addition, the center offers clothing, bags, back to school supplies and coats, holiday meals, educational and life skills workshops, craft night, game night, yoga, internet access and job support.

Most importantly, we provide an atmosphere where individuals can come in to the center and feel safe.

They can get a hot cup of coffee now that is cold outside, and they can sit down and they have someone to talk to in.

Perhaps Eva, a community member who came to change on Hamilton and found the change she so desperately needed, said it best.

I am the change on Hamilton.

I am the change on Hamilton.

The change on Hamilton Recovery Center offers new hope to individuals in recovery and their families as they face the challenges posed by the opioid crisis and other addictions here.

Those in recovery can find the resources and community they need to support them.

And so, Grover, it sounds like this center really came out of the fact that people in recovery were really struggling with isolation during the pandemic.

Is that what happened?

Yeah, as a matter of fact, the year before the center opened, the Lehigh County saw a marked increase in overdose deaths because of opioid use.

So it came at a very pivotal time.

And really overall, the, change on Hamilton Recovery Center is a place that offers those who are facing addiction issues, and are in recovery, a safe haven and a place to get the necessary services that they need.

For this expanded new recovery center reopening now really seems to give people who often face a daunting battle a little bit of hope.

Exactly.

All right, Grover, well, thank you so much for that information.

My pleasure.

All right.

That'll do it for this edition of living in the Lehigh Valley.

I'm Brittany Sweeney, hoping you stay happy and healthy.