On Saturday, May 20, Home of New Vision welcomed members of the community to join them in the grand opening of their new Ypsilanti Recovery Wellness Center. Located on Ecourse, near the intersection of Michigan Avenue, residents can drop-in the new center and get connected to recovery services and support.
Brianna Dobbs, the director of community initiatives at Home of New Vision, describes the Wellness Center as a place that “will serve as a hub to link together services throughout our agency in the greater community. We’ll work together towards reducing barriers to accessing and maintaining a happy, healthy lifestyle by focusing on the eight dimensions of wellness to prevent substance use and misuse in our communities.”
Recognizing that the effects of substance use are varied and far-reaching, focusing on the eight dimensions of wellness help ensure people are getting the resources and support they need. The dimensions include physical, intellectual, emotional, social, spiritual, occupational, financial, and environmental factors, all of which are heavily impacted by substance use. In walking through each dimension, clients seeking help are more easily able to define and articulate a set of concrete goals they can work towards.
Helping clients work through these goals are trained recovery coaches who will staff the center.
“Recovery coaches are people with lived experience in substance use disorder and recovery,” says Dobbs, adding that “coaches are able to connect with clients based on those shared lived experiences to offer a non-stigmatizing approach to helping people set their own goals as it relates to not only substance use, but overall wellbeing in general.”
Dobbs highlights that when visiting the center, people can expect different types of support to meet their needs: “Residents might come there for one of our weekly recovery meetings that we’re going to be hosting, or come in for recovery coaching services for themselves to get connected to different services. We also support people who have a family member or loved one struggling with substance use.”
“While we continue to see increases in overdose deaths in Washtenaw County,” says Matt Hill, WHI Project Manager and facilitator of the WHI Opioid Project, “this is a much needed resource in the Ypsilanti Community, as it is the area of the county where we see the largest rates of drug poisonings.”
The center is located at 141 Ecorse Rd, Ypsilanti, MI 48198 and is open Monday through Friday from 11am to 4pm. For more information about the center, its hours, and services offered, you can reach center staff by calling 734-660-7635.