Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

April Wallace, a certified peer recovery coach with ARH, was the featured speaker at April’s Stand in the Gap Coalition meeting. She spoke about the RHOAR Center in Middlesboro, which offers women in recovery a place to stay and receive treatment in a supportive environment.

Wallace shared that she was in recovery herself for over ten years now. Now She steps in in the ER when patients are screened and say they are currently using or abusing drugs or alcohol.

She said she currently spends more time at the RHOAR Center than she does at home.

“A lot of those girls don’t have anyone,” she said. “I didn’t have anyone (when I was going through recovery) so I just want them to know they have somebody.”

RHOAR stands for Recovery, Hope, Opportunity and Resilience. Designed to help women recover from substance abuse disorder through holistic treatment, the center provides living spaces, medically assisted treatment and mental health counseling in addition to vocational training and a workforce rehabilitation program.  In addition to a 100-bed inpatient facility, the center has 52 family living units to allow mothers in recovery to reunite with their children. There are 30 efficiencies, 10 four-person units and 12 two-bedroom apartments designated for families being reunited in recovery.

Wallace said she leads Bible studies at the center.

“Recovery takes very passionate people to be successful,” she said. “The RHOAR Center is a great facility — God is in there.”

For more information about the RHOAR Center contact Anna Taylor at 606-248-2466.

Stand in the Gap will be hosting their semiannual Drug Take Back Day on Saturday April 26 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. This year the event will be held at both Rowland Veterinary Services on Highway 33 in New Tazewell and the Harrogate Animal Hospital on Highway 25E Harrogate. Officers will be at both sites to collect unused prescription drugs for both animals and people.