It’s been five months since county officials cut the ribbon to open the Cumberland-Fayetteville Recovery Resource Center. On Friday, March 21, the center’s staff and partners will formally welcome community members to the center through a celebratory resource fair.
“We’re going to offer a kind of fellowship,” Greg Berry, the Cumberland-Fayetteville Opioid Response Team (C-FORT) coordinator, said when presenting the event at a recent meeting. “Just build a sense of community with the folks that are participating in the event and that are coming out there so that they feel a sense of connection and ownership of the Recovery Resource Center.”
The resource fair will run from noon to 4 p.m. on the lawn outside the center at 707 Executive Place. Berry said the goal is to celebrate residents’ recovery journeys while showcasing the services offered at the Recovery Resource Center and through community providers.
The event will feature music, food provided by Broken Chains, a local Christian substance use recovery nonprofit, and games with prizes. Prizes include a recovery backpack donated by the local mental health clinic Life Net Services and a tablet donated by the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition.
Recovery Resource Center staff will host a table at the fair, providing information about their services and connecting with attendees. The center was one of the many programs funded through the county’s share of national opioid settlement dollars. In February 2024, the Cumberland County Board of Commissioners approved a budget of $650,000 for the center to operate for the next three years.
Since opening in October, the Recovery Resource Center has served hundreds of people and hosted dozens of recovery group sessions. So far this month, the center has served 113 people, providing 63 syringe exchanges and handing out six wound kits and 13 naloxone kits in addition to other services.
While offering these resources, the center primarily serves as a hub to connect residents with providers of substance use recovery and other services. Many of the center’s partnered providers are part of the C-FORT coalition, which will also have a table at the fair. These include the Carolina Treatment Center of Fayetteville, the North Carolina Harm Reduction Coalition, the Mid-Carolina Regional Council and the Cumberland Local Reentry Council.
Information about the Connected Care Program, a collaborative program between the Cumberland County public health and social services departments, will also be available. The program fills gaps in the departments’ services, providing help accessing anything from glasses to housing and connecting residents to other community resources.
For more information about the C-FORT community resource fair, contact Berry at gberry@cumberlandcountync.gov. More information about the Recovery Resource Center, including a schedule of its recovery groups and when providers will be in the building, can be found on its website.
CityView Reporter Morgan Casey is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms. Morgan’s reporting focuses on health care issues in and around Cumberland County and can be supported through the CityView News Fund.
