Dozens of supporters gathered at the Freedom Bridge Resource Center Tuesday to officially mark its opening with a ceremonial ribbon cutting sponsored by the Henderson-Vance Chamber of Commerce.
But work at the center has been going on for close to two months now, and Program Director Danetta McKnight said the resource center has been able to provide ongoing assistance to 20 individuals during that time. And they’re just getting started.
Freedom Bridge is part of Community Partners of Hope, and is located beside Vance Recovery at 936 West Andrews Avenue. It’s a resource center – a hub – where partners come together to serve the community, she said.
Representatives from The Genesis Project, a Charlotte-based program, come weekly to provide services such as peer support and other types of counseling for clients in recovery from substance addiction.
“We’re grateful that someone saw something in Freedom Bridge,” she said.
The support for individuals in a recovery program comes in different forms, and Freedom Bridge is where all types of services can come together to help clients and families in their journeys.
One community volunteer employs clients as day laborers, which gives them a little money in their pocket to buy food or toiletry items, she said.
Whether through mentoring, helping reconnect those estranged from families because of substance abuse or just providing a small meal and a warm place to “be,” Freedom Bridge is living up to its mission statement: Helping people cross over from systems that trap them to lives they own.
McKnight expressed gratitude to the community for being accepting of the work that Freedom Bridge is setting out to do and to Community Partners of Hope “for connecting with me and listening to a young lady that had a dream…believed in my dream and offered me a position where I could do what it is I felt like I was born to do.”
Visit https://www.cp-hope.org/freedombridge to learn how you can help through volunteering or donating.
