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By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews
WARSAW — When a person deals with addiction, they sometimes feel cut off from the rest of society, said Fellowship Missions of Warsaw Executive Director Eric Lane.
A new recovery spot in Kosciusko County aims to change that, he said.
Work is being done on The Gathering Place at 123 S. Buffalo St., Warsaw. It’s meant to be a place where people can get help as well as a general meeting place for anyone, explained Lane, who’s overseeing it.
There’s no official date yet for its opening, said Lane.
The first floor of the 9,000-square-foot building will have a coffee shop “feel,” with open space for people to meet with mental health and addiction professionals, said Lane.
He said people may just have meetings there as well as “bring their own coffee in and just sit down if they just want to have a place to chill, do work.”
“We’re also partnering with (the Department of Child Services) with supervised visits, so there will be a kids’ play area,” said Lane.
As plans are to have the first floor open later at night than other parts of the building, it can be closed off from the rest, explained Lane.
The first floor also will include a private room for meetings.
The basement will have “a common room,” said Lane. There will also be storage space and “a maker’s room,” he said.
People may do art therapy or “other kind of craft-stuff” there, said Lane.
On the upper floor will be two conference rooms and seven offices. Fellowships Missions should have three staff members working there, including resource and mental health staff members.
Two Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory’s Community Assistance, Resources and Emergency Services’ employees will also have offices in The Gathering Place, with another organization coming possibly as well.
“Our goal is to bring multiple agencies under one roof because when we can talk closely together and work closely together, it just is a better outcome for the community and the people that need help,” said Lane.
He said one office should be free for any other outside organization to use if, if needed.
People should be able to schedule appointments with therapists at The Gathering Place or do walk-in ones, said Lane.
“There’s some new Celebrate Recovery classes that want to start up. There’s some individuals that want to start some other different recovery … classes or groups … and also some other community awareness events,” said Lane. “And if anybody wants to talk to us about utilizing the conference room space or (another) space, we’d be open to that as well.”
“I’ve talked to different business owners, and one of them said, ‘Yeah, I’ll use this for our directors,’ and what’s neat about that is they’re going to come into a space that’s for recovery,” said Lane. “They’re coming into that space, and it just helps everybody.”
“Tearing those walls down are so important, and individuals that find themselves in a position that they’re in with substance misuse, people don’t want to be there, and people shouldn’t be judged by it, and they’re no different than anybody else,” added Lane. “It’s just a circumstance that they’re in, and we shouldn’t look at people differently … (In) this building, there’s recovery community happening and different things, but it’s about a whole community coming together to serve everybody in the community.”
Kosciusko County purchased the building using some of the monies the state got by participating a multi-state lawsuit with Johnson & Johnson, Cardinal Health, McKesson and AmerisourceBergen for the companies’ contribution to the national opioid epidemic.
The renovations are being paid for by a $100,000 matching grant Fellowship Missions is receiving from the K21 Health Foundation.
Lane noted Fellowship Missions is still collecting funds for its match. To donate, people may give by calling (574) 268-9555, going to fellowshipmissions.net/donate or sending a check to P.O. Box 382, Winona Lake, IN 46590, with the memo line “The Gathering Place.”
“We hope this is just a beacon of light for our community to help serve, break down stigma and just make our community a better place,” said Lane. “We believe that relationships are the key to life transformation … We want this to be a gathering place where people come together and life happens and transformation happens.”
