On Saturday, Pitts Park hosted hundreds of people for a Recovery Festival in observance of National Recovery Month.
The Recovery Festival is a drug and alcohol recovery celebration for those who have put down their destructive habits for a better life.
“The turnout for this Recovery Festival was good,” said Tammy Massey of the Mountain Judicial Circuit Accountability Court system. “We raised a little over $4,000 on Saturday for transportation and taxi vouchers for people in recovery to get to their meetings, drug screens and court dates.”
Massey said the Mountain Judicial Circuit Accountability and Drug Court’s purpose is to help people who have been to jail recover through programs that use evidence-based treatment and allow them to organize community outreach projects like the Recovery Festival to help in their journey.
Wellness and recovery
The Center for Wellness and Recovery is a 30-day detox and recovery organization part of the nonprofit Hope for a Drug-Free Stephens Collaborative.
The program allows people with addiction a medical detox from drugs and alcohol while providing classes, meetings, and mentorships with previous addicts who have since recovered.
“It’s a community of people,” said Kathy Whitmire. “Out of the over 400 or so people we have had go through the program, around twenty of them attended the Recovery Festival. I hate to put a number on it, but there were a bunch of people there.”
Whitmire said the opioid and drug crisis in Habersham, Rabun, Stephens and White counties is a real problem that people should pay attention to.
“We’ve been educating people on the dangers of opioid use. The more you ignore it, the bigger a problem it becomes,” said Whitmire. “We’ve decreased the opioid prescription rate from 164 per 100 people down to 58 per 100 people in Stephens County.”
Due to Hope for a Drug-Free Stephens Collective’s efforts to protect citizens, they have noticed a counterproductive effect.
“The prescription rate has decreased, but sadly, the illegal market has grown. We’ve also lowered the rate so far that we’ve lost funding,” said Whitmire.
The Center for Wellness and Recovery is currently full, with a waiting list to enter.
A new heart condition
#GODGANG was at the festival to provide assistance and entertainment from a different perspective.
#GODGANG is a Christian-based rap and outreach organization dedicated to spreading awareness about addiction and helping those struggling with addiction find a new “heart condition,” a love for Jesus.
The nonprofit books concerts, benefit rallies and other musical attractions at churches and venues across the southeast to spread the word of God and promote a different relationship with religion.
“A lot of our music is about where we were, what happened and where God has brought us from,” said Matthew “Serve” Dietel. “It’s not like the churches that a lot of these people grew up in where the hymnal is the only thing you sing from. It’s not about that religion stuff. It’s about a heart condition for Jesus.”
The #GODGANG organization is also directly involved with helping folks struggling with addiction find a new way of life through Christ and Christian rap music.
Co-owner and Christian rapper Serve states, “If I can do what I can for just one person to be able to grasp ahold of recovery, it was all worth it. My partner, Pastor Dustin McClary, and I have over ten years of sobriety between us. It’s just the heart we have to show the love of Jesus to people and talk about what God has done for us through our music.”
Serve is all about giving back to the less fortunate and people experiencing homelessness.
“The money we make from selling our merchandise goes towards us making music and giving back to the homeless at events across the state and southeast,” Serve stated.
#GODGANG will perform at their second-annual outreach concert in December in Habersham County.