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18
Posted by benniefinch on September 18th, 2025
Posted in: Blog, Funded Project, Webinars
Tags: Funded Projects, recovery, substance use disorder
You may have read about Saratoga Springs Public Library’s Read to Recovery Project (NY) or Riverbend’s funded project Build Recovery Capital (MA) in our previous Region 7 newsletters. Week after next, we will be hosting the project leads to learn about how each organization is working to support Recovery in their community. On October 7th at noon ET, join us for the one-hour panel presentation – Region 7 Presents: Building Recovery through Community . Learn more and register at the class registration link.
Come discover two models of supporting recovery in the community, develop awareness of community resources and health information resources to support recovery, and identify potential partnerships to support health programming, health reference and community outreach in support of recovery. MLA and CHES CE are available for this presentation.
In this presentation Rich Hollett will discuss the recovery coaching model, recovery capital and recovery cafes. Emily Martin will discuss how her public library piloted a project to make a small collection of free materials available to their community. That has blossomed into a large collection, supported by financial and in-kind donations from community members, their local health department, and more. The library has also worked to embed themselves in the community through awareness events, book clubs held in the community, and through partnerships with service providers.
Rich and Emily are both kind and knowledgeable community resources. Not only do they receive requests for support in their own regions, but each presents their work in conference presentations and speaking invitations in other states. The Read to Recovery Project led to involvement with a national collaboration of public libraries supporting recovery.
We hope you can join us!
September is National Recovery Month. You can find resources and awareness toolkits from the CDC and SAMSHA or check out a book from the NNLM Reading Club such as these featured books on Recovery from Alcohol Use Disorder.
Richard Hollett, CARC– Division Director of Recovery Support Services. Starting at Riverbend as a Recovery Coach himself, Rich played an instrumental role in building the recovery coach program, bringing Recovery Cafe to Lowell and a second Recovery Café to Haverhill, and developing CCAR’s Recovery Coach Academy at Riverbend. Rich leads with his heart. Guided by lived experience, he champions healing through connection, love, and compassion. Rich’s personal and professional experiences have informed him that love, and its restorative impact, is his most valuable resource. He recognizes the profound benefits of being known, valued, and loved and the suffering that comes from their absence. He is a true force for change within the field of addiction treatment and recovery so that perspectives evolve, biases dissolve, and services are delivered with the love, compassion, and dignity that every human being deserves.
Emily Martin (she/her) has been working in public libraries since 2011 and is now an adult services librarian at the Saratoga Springs Public Library in Upstate, NY. She is passionate about library services that give visibility and compassion to those dealing with invisible forces such as grief, addiction, recovery, mental illness, housing insecurity, and more.
This year we are focusing on the impact of NLM and NNLM resources in our region, especially our funded projects. If you have stories you would like to share or hear more about, please reach out bennie.finch@umassmed.edu
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