Sunrise Community for Recovery and Wellness is pleased to announce that we have received a People in Need grant from The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina for the Recovery Workshop Outreach to Under-Resourced Communities project. This funding will support Sunrise in working with local recovery communities in Madison, McDowell, Polk, and Buncombe counties to provide free workshops, share recovery resources, and learn more about ways that the recovery communities in counties other than Buncombe are working to respond to their community’s needs for recovery support.
As part of this project, with support from a People in Need grant from The CFWNC and donations made to support recovery in under-resourced areas, Sunrise will be offering paid service learning internships to existing and emerging recovery community leaders in Madison, McDowell, Polk, and under-resourced areas of Buncombe County as a way of supporting local community organizing capacity and providing paid, professional development experience to individuals working to support recovery in their communities.
These community events may be organized as part of National Recovery Month (September 2020), a nationwide celebration of recovery.
Sunrise will hold a recovery community listening session as part of these events for the purpose of learning more about recovery needs and assets that exist in under-resourced areas of Polk, Madison, McDowell, and Buncombe County. Listening sessions will include opportunities for community members to share their experiences in accessing resources to support recovery, their perceptions of recovery needs within their communities, and ideas about how recovery can best be supported in their local communities. Listening session participants will have the opportunity to participate in voluntary voice and video recording projects that will be created to support regional and statewide recovery advocacy efforts.
This project utilizes participatory organizing methodologies – which means that an organization, individual, or group works with communities to create resources, programs, projects, and events that reflect the community’s needs and interests, which build on existing community strengths and resources, and which actively involve community members in the process of organizing.
Community Outreach and Organizing Service Learning Internships
Interns will work with Sunrise staff and volunteers to help us to connect with the local community and to work with community members to organize a recovery workshop and recovery resource offering that reflects community needs and interests. Service learning interns will help us to develop outreach materials to engage the local community and
will provide support in getting word out about the events we will be organizing together. Service learning interns will have the opportunity to gain experience as community organizers, and will receive a living wage stipend for 30 hours of service over several months.
This opportunity was designed to provide existing and emerging recovery community leaders with the chance to contribute to bringing a free recovery resource to their home communities while also gaining additional community organizing experience and earning income for their work to support their communities in recovery.
Additional information about how to apply for service learning internships will be announced in March 2020 and we’ll send out an announcement!
