Sunrise Community for Recovery and Wellness

Sunrise’s Linkage 2 Care Re-entry Program helps recently incarcerated people regain stability and integration back into the community.

For up to a year post release, Sunrise’s Certified Peer Support Specialists connect Buncombe County residents who have been released from jail or prison in the last 90 days to vital resources such as individualized peer support, recovery programs, recovery housing, harm reduction services, food, work supplies and more.

Our Peer Support Specialists have a unique bond with program participants and offer an authentic connection, build mutuality and trust, remove stigma, demonstrate the possibility of recovery and help individuals connect with their own strengths.

These physical and emotional connections are vital in reintegrating formerly incarcerated individuals back into the community and provide stronger engagement and sustained connection when people are most vulnerable to recidivism.

The Blair H. Clark Respite House, operated by Sunrise Community for Recovery and Wellness, is the first of its kind in North Carolina and the 17th in the United States. It is considered an alternative to an inpatient psychiatric hospital stay for individuals in recovery experiencing emotional distress or in need of a break from current circumstances. The Respite House is located in Asheville, NC.

Guests stay voluntarily for free up to a week at no cost. Each guest (a maximum of four) gets their own room located in a residential home equipped with a personal lock-box for medications, kitchen, outdoor space, books, TV, games, phone and a computer. The house is centrally located on a bus line and close to a grocery store and community services.

t is staffed 24/7 by a staff of Sunrise Certified Peer Support Specialists who provide guests with support and tools to pursue recovery and wellness.

Sunrise’s Peer University program provides learning and professional development opportunities to individuals in recovery who are currently Certified Peer Support Specialists as well as those interested in becoming Certified Peer Support Specialists. Sunrise’s Peer University is an integral part in providing the training, support and education needed for individuals to complete their Peer Support certification and join the workforce and the community as a Certified Peer Support Specialist.

Incarceration, substance use and mental health challenges are typically seen as barriers to employment and economic stability.

Sunrise’s Peer University helps remove barriers by providing a pathway to becoming a Certified Peer Support Specialist– an employable position utilizing lived experience to build individual and community connection resulting in increased access to healthcare, resources and recidivism.

MAT is an evidence-based model using medications to treat individuals with an opioid dependency housed at the detention center during their incarceration and for one year post-release.

This innovative program helps incarcerated/formerly incarcerated individuals stem their cravings, reduce risk of HIV, Hepatitis C, relapse and re-arrest while increasing chances of recovery and motivation to reconnect with community. More than three decades of research has demonstrated the effectiveness of MAT as the most effective opioid use disorder treatment for preventing overdose deaths, reducing risky behaviors that lead to spreading of communicable disease, helping stabilize families and returning individuals to their lives and relationships.

Sunrise Peer Support Specialists work directly with opioid dependent individuals during their incarceration and for up to a year post release.

In partnership with Buncombe County Department of Health and Human Services, Sunrise’s Harm Reduction Program is a proactive and evidence-based approach to reduce the negative personal and public health impacts of behavior associated with substance use at both the individual and community levels. Our work is grounded in protecting the safety and dignity of program participants.

Our Certified Peer Support Specialists with their own lived experience with harm reduction “meet people where they are” and provide peer support, resource connection, safety precaution and education. We provide these resources without judgement, coercion, or discrimination and recognize that harm reduction can be a pathway to prevention, treatment and recovery services.

Sunrise’s Child Support Program, in partnership with the Buncombe County Detention Center, may be able to help. We know that families are not served by having the non-custodial parent placed in jail due to non-payment of child support.

Our Child Support Program not only assists with partial or limited purge payments to prevent incarceration, but also provides peer support and connections to transportation, recovery services, education and other basic needs. The family unit is strengthened when both parents are able to meet their full potential.