Each month Castle Country Radio likes to spotlight an organization within the community that is doing a lot of good. For August, we direct the spotlight toward the Utah Support Advocates for Recovery Awareness (USARA), an organization which according to their website aims to,” empower people in recovery by providing message trainings for people wanting to share their recovery with others, providing a public platform for trained recovering individuals to share their recovery story, reaching out to our community to share the message that recovery is possible, and assisting people in recovery to find meaning and purpose in their lives through volunteering and activism.”
Castle Country Radio sat down with Mersades Morgan, a peer recovery coach with USARA to talk about the organization and what it’s doing for the community.
USARA, which was founded in 2006, has a history of aiding addiction recovery efforts and helping breakdown the stigma of addiction. “We are a peer-based organization, meaning that all of our employees have lived experience and that is what we bring to the table,” Morgan explained.
USARA believes in an individualized approach to addiction recovery, recognizing that no two paths are the same,” Everybody got here differently, so they are going to recover differently. And what we like to empower people in is finding something that works for them.” Morgan Continued,” So we currently offer seven different mutual aid support groups throughout the week. And some of those look like Recovery Dharma, which is Buddhist-based. We also have Recovery Yoga. We have Coffee and Recovery. We have Wellness Wednesdays, where we go into the community and we participate in different kinds of activities to enhance people getting out and finding things that they can participate in and find enjoyment in again.”
Another aspect of USARA is its advocacy for each participant in the recovery programs. “We are very big on empowering individuals into advocating for themselves. So not only do we work on a one-on-one peer-based level where we offer recovery coaching to individuals.”
That advocacy is not only extended to the general public as Morgan explained,” We also currently take support meetings into Carbon County Jail for individuals that are incarcerated. We work with individuals that are in the courts as well as probation and parole. So we try to empower people to get to a place where they feel comfortable advocating for themselves and speaking up about what their needs are.”
The penultimate topic of our interview was an event coming up for USARA,” We have our fourth annual Recovery Day event. We’re super excited about it. It is going to be Sept. 6, which is a Friday. It will be from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Price City Peace Gardens. We do invite all members of the community to come and participate in this event. We are just taking an opportunity to celebrate individuals that are in recovery and that are seeking recovery.”
Closing out our conversation, Morgan left us with this message,” It is never too late. If you love someone, if you are someone, if you know someone who could benefit from recovery support services, everything we offer is free of charge.”
USARA is located at 91 East Main Street in Price, Utah. For more information on how to get involved with USARA, you can visit their website here. You can also join the organization’s Facebook group here.
