Hands Around The Park 2024 - Ask Me About My Recovery

[Chantel Ortiz, Lifeways staff member, at Hands Around the Park 2024 wearing an "Ask me about my recovery" shirt.]

At Hands Around the Park 2024, community members gathered to celebrate recovery and prevention efforts. Among them was Chantel Ortiz, who works at Lifeways and was nominated for the 2024 Judge Terry Thompson Prevention Award. Chantel proudly wore a shirt that read, “Ask me about my recovery.”

Her courage to share her story in such a public way reflects what this movement is all about: making recovery visible, approachable, and celebrated. Stories like Chantel’s remind us that recovery is possible — and that when our communities provide support, people can thrive.

Why a Recovery Center Matters

At Insight Matters, we know that substance use disorder is not a private issue — it’s a public one. It touches our schools, workplaces, emergency rooms, and homes. That’s why our board president, Dr. Becky Wolery, PsyD, LCSW, along with members of the Idaho Region 3 Behavioral Health Board, recently shared an important proposal with the Payette County Board of Commissioners: the creation of a local Recovery Center to serve Payette, Washington, and Adams counties.

Unlike a crisis center that provides short-term stabilization, a recovery center focuses on long-term support for individuals in recovery. These centers are community-based, non-clinical, and built to fill the gap after inpatient or outpatient treatment ends—when people are most at risk of relapse.

A typical recovery center can provide:

• Peer support and mentoring

• Life skills training

• Job readiness and housing support

• Group support and recovery activities

• Ongoing sobriety and relapse prevention

• Connections to outpatient or residential programs

Recovery centers often include simple but essential resources such as peer-led groups, food pantries, computers for job searches, and safe spaces for those rebuilding their lives.

“Without a structured, supportive recovery community, the risk of relapse skyrockets,” Dr. Wolery explained. “A recovery center gives us the chance to stop the cycle and start rebuilding lives — from the inside out.”

Local Needs and Opportunities

Currently, our border counties face limited access to recovery services. While some treatment options exist in neighboring areas, many Idaho residents can’t access them due to insurance restrictions, state coverage differences, or transportation challenges.

A recovery center here would:

• Provide a safe, drug-free environment for ongoing recovery

• Offer peer-led services that build belonging, accountability, and purpose

• Reduce relapse, hospitalizations, and repeat incarcerations

• Create local jobs and lower long-term community costs related to addiction

County and city governments, along with nonprofits and behavioral health agencies, can play a pivotal role by helping to identify a location, supporting grant efforts, signing letters of support, or allocating funds.

A Community-Led Effort

Nine recovery centers already exist in Idaho, and the Region 3 Behavioral Health Board has identified our three-county area as a critical gap. Funding support from the state, paired with local partnerships, could make this vision a reality.

As Dr. Wolery emphasized, “Addiction doesn’t just impact the person struggling with it — it ripples through families, friendships, and entire communities.”

By investing in a recovery center, we can bring hope, healing, and opportunity to hundreds of families across Payette, Washington, and Adams counties.