Center of HOPE helping the community with peer support

The Center for HOPE is now in a new building right next to the Behavioral Health Crisis Center in Idaho Falls. The center focuses on peer support and recovery. It says it is one of nine centers in the state to do this.

The Center for HOPE is a peer-based recovery center.

“Gives peers an opportunity to interact and help each other in recovery whether it is a substance use recovery or mental health recovery. It gives an opportunity for everyone to come together and share like experiences and help each other in those next steps,” says Larry Manring, Executive Director.

People who come to the center looking for help work one on one with a Peer Support Specialist known as a Recovery Coach.

“Someone to teach them a different way of life and recovery is possible and how to get it because a lot of them come out from prisons, jails and just have a rough life out there and don’t know what their objectives are so they come in here and look for answers and we help walk them through everything,” says Elden Moore, Peer Support Specialist/Recovery Coach.

Which they say is very needed in our community.

“With the opiate crisis that we have seen, with the mental health challenges, suicide rates in Idaho are amongst the highest right now. With facilities like this and co-locating with the Behavioral Health Crisis Center, it gives us an opportunity to reach out and provide more resources for people who may not have those available to them,” says Manring.

“People who get in recovery they have no clue of what’s that’s supposed to look and so as a recovery coach we can help them set up goals that they need to accomplish, what they see their life turning into, what they want it to become and helping them find ways to walk through that and how to be the person that they want to be,” says Moore.

Today’s open house acknowledged commissioners and people in the community who helped make this new location possible. If you want to support the center you can donate to the “Building Hope Brick by Brick” fundraiser. For more information, you can visit the Facebook page or stop by the center at 530 E. Anderson St. in Idaho Falls.

This Sunday, the first Idaho Recovery Open Awareness Ride will stop at the Center for HOPE. It is a statewide motorcycle ride celebrating September as “National Recovery Month.”