Our Story
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Early Years (Developing a purpose)
Founded in 2014 as a non-profit charity focused on helping sober living programs gain Florida Association of Recovery Residences (FARR) accreditation, Recovery Epicenter gained it’s 501-c3 in December of 2015 under the leadership of our first volunteer Executive Director Jessica Leigh Scott.
Carlos Morgan, Edward Jones, William Atkinson, and Rachel Strausbaugh meeting at Starbucks with a recoveree discovering how the newly formed non-profit can support persons in early recovery through the personal experience of our first participant.
Founders from Left to Right: William Atkinson, person in long term recovery since 2006 – Edward Jones, person in long term recovery since 2010 – Carlos Morgan, person in long term recovery since 2009
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Jessica Leigh Scott is a person in long term recovery since December of 2011 who has dedicated herself to helping others throughout her career and her leadership gained RE our 501-c3 status and sparked our becoming the second ARCO member in the State of Florida.
Recovery Epicenter’s board members! 1/31/15 Can’t say enough good things about this group of dedicated recovery community advocates. With their guidance, we’re going to improve the landscape for recovery in Tampa Bay.
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Becoming an RCO
By the summer of 2016, the laws in Florida had begun to change, requiring sober living programs to achieve FARR accreditation if they wanted to receive referrals from DCF licensed treatment programs. Considering our original mission complete, in large part due to the sober home task force and FARR accredited programs throughout the state of Florida, Recovery Epicenter needed a new mission.
Recovery Epicenter found it’s new mission through it’s now long-term Executive Director William Atkinson. Through helping raise standards at sober living homes throughout the Tampa Bay area we had developed resources and support for persons seeking to overcome obstacles to their early recovery. Those resources began to form the backbone of our Recovery Community Foundation, which we added to our name in 2016. Program Director Rochae Zwicharowski stepped up to lead the day to day.
Recovery Epicenter Foundation the second Recovery Community Organization in the state of Florida came to be in the commercial space between FARR accredited sober living at 559 49th St S in Saint Petersburg Florida. From that building we provided access to multiple pathways to recovery, recovery summits, hosted a fed-up rally, as well as a host of recovery activities for our community.
Operating as a Recovery Community Organization without Borders
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Through The Present
In late 2017, shortly after our Fed-Up Rally, we were asked to vacate 559 49th St S due to not having a fire suppression system within our commercial space adjacent to FARR accredited sober living. We had to pair down the services we offered to our community and refocused on Narcan distribution, education, and providing discounted bus passes to persons in early recovery. Rochae Z moved on to work in the substance abuse treatment field and Rachel Starostin came on to replace her.
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We began providing services in Pasco as well.
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Providing Physically Safe Distanced Services throughout the Pandemic
After the Summit in Pasco, then program director Rachel Starostin stepped down to found her own non-profit that became the Grace house, a FARR accredited home in Pasco. Audrey Hill joined the team as the new program director and managed the day-to-day operations through the pandemic.
On our website and social media, we showcased persons in long term recovery stories for those who appropriately physically distanced and were thus unable to attend in person recovery meetings. To that end we also created safe recovery events, a drive through Narcan distribution spot, connected with Pasco Police providing 200 doses to their behavioral health unit, and began producing recovery advocacy videos. Even a pandemic wasn’t going to slow down our dedicated volunteers.
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Recovery Epicenter Foundation is proud of the progress we have been a part of in the past, as well as our continued advocacy into the future. Our big push this year, while providing free recovery coaching services in Pinellas and Pasco counties because of a community partnership with Westcare (our Administrative Service Organization) through the SOR2 grant made available through the Department of Children and Families (DCF) and Central Florida Behavioral Health (CFBH), is to encourage family, friends, and businesses to become a member of our Recovery Community Organization.
It costs you nothing to add your name to a growing movement that demands a pathway back to full citizenship for persons who suffer from a substance use disorder. Regardless of our recovery pathway, and our personal views on changing dynamics within the substance use field and recovery community, we can all come together to make recovery more accessible and have less obstacles than we experienced getting here.
It is only through the joint efforts of all of us, recovering person, family member, and employer that we can shift discriminatory laws and practices that disproportionately target substance users and those of us now in recovery as second-class citizens.
We need a pathway back to full citizenship for persons who have paid their price to society and are now actively contributing to the communities they live in. Being denied jobs, places to live, or expected to live without dignity because they are seeking help is neither appropriate nor acceptable. A man or woman should not be without economic advantage or ability to support themselves simply because they made a mistake and or acted out while in active addiction. Allow these people to choose a better life for themselves by adding your name to our advocacy campaign and become attached to the statewide RCO Floridians for Recovery.
Sincerely,
William Atkinson