By Myara Gomez
Staff Writer
The Collegiate Recovery Community held a day of service on March 31, where students learned to assemble life-saving Naloxone kits. The Collegiate Recovery Community prepared over 750 Naloxone kits in the Brower Student Center.
“Naloxone is a medication approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) designed to rapidly reverse opioid overdose,” according to samhsa.gov. This means that this medication is used to quickly save someone suffering from a drug overdose.
The most well known brand of Naloxone is also known as Narcan. There are several different ways to use Naloxone. According to samhsa.gov, there are many different forms, such as intranasal spray, intramuscular, subcutaneous or intravenous injection.
Naloxone is a life saving device and The Collegiate Recovery Community is devoted to making these kits available for those in need.
The recovery program at the College is built on three pillars: support, advocacy and community.
The program has several different facets for students can get involved. There is substance free housing, counseling sessions and recreate your night, which occurs four nights a week and is full of substance-free activities.
Junior psychology major Robert Mitten left the College in 2018. In May of that year, Mitten worked extremely hard on all aspects of his life including his mental health, and reapplied to the College in 2020.
"I knew that there was a home for me in the CRC, and immediately reached back out to Chris and got connected with some of the amazing people I now get to call my friends,” said Mitten. Mitten is also the executive vice president of the Collegiate Recovery Community and he chairs the all-recovery meetings on Monday nights.
The Collegiate Recovery Program is a student organization which was made for students that are at any stage of the recovering process. This could be if they are either thinking about stopping the use of these substances or have established recovery and are getting back into school. Allies that feel connected to the movement through either a family or friend going through substance abuse are welcomed as well.
“Individuals in recovery and allies of recovery kind of have this environment where they can learn from each other, they can heal with each other, they can grow during this time here at school,” said Eric Van Eck, the recovery and prevention coordinator who oversees the collegiate recovery program at the College.
This program allows for students to form new and healthy friendships with another individual that understands them and where they are coming from.
“It doesn’t have to be specific to substance use, you could be really stressed out and be a student and come to that meeting to talk about it,” said Van Eck. “If you have relationship issues, have other behaviors that you may be acting out on that you want to change. Recovery is a process of change so you are more than welcome at the all recovery meeting, it’s student led group support.”
Events like this are very important for students to get together, meet new people and learn more about substance use and recovery. The Collegiate Recovery Community hopes that more people could come out to events and meetings if they can.
“I think that the day of service was a wonderful event that was there to help break the stigma surrounding substance use disorder recovery,” said Olivia Bowman, a senior journalism and professional writing major. “People often see those who have needed Narcan as beyond help or someone that does not care about the state of their own lives. However that could not be more wrong, Narcan gives people second chances at life. It is such an important tool in helping people recover.”
