Celebrate Recovery Brighton requests funds from opioid settlement

WASHINGTON – The founders of Celebrate Recovery Brighton appeared before the Washington County Board of Supervisors Tuesday, asking whether some of the money from an opioid settlement could go to support their group’s chapters in Brighton and Washington.

Rick and Anne Zickefoose founded the Brighton chapter of Celebrate Recovery in 2017, and the group meets weekly at 6 p.m. every Thursday at the Brighton Community Church at 101 S. Mechanic St., where Rick is the pastor. Five years ago, a chapter was formed in Washington, and that group meets every Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the United Methodist Church at 201 W. Second St.

Rick said the organization’s purpose is to help anyone trying to overcome “hurts, habits and hang-ups,” which could range from addiction to depression to recovering from abuse. Anne said the group is for anyone struggling with “feelings of worthlessness” and those in need of healing.

Rick and Anne said that they saw an article last year in the Southeast Iowa Union about Washington County joining a group of counties eligible for payouts from an opioid settlement. At first, they were unsure whether Celebrate Recovery would be eligible for these funds since it’s a faith-based organization, but later learned that the language in the settlement specifically condones funding for faith-based groups.

On Tuesday, Feb. 2, the couple presented a funding request to the Washington County Board of Supervisors, asking for $1,520 per month that would be split equally between the Washington and Brighton chapters because they have similar attendance. The supervisors heard the couple speak for 30 minutes, including an update on Celebrate Recovery’s activities, but ultimately took no action on the request. The supervisors agreed that they would need to study the settlement language further before making a decision.

Rick told The Union that, as far as he knows, Celebrate Recovery Brighton is the first local organization to request funding from the opioid settlement.

“We’re on the cutting edge, thanks to The Union publishing that article,” Rick said. “We’ve operated on a donation basis [since 2017], and it’s wonderful that we’ve been able to function, but it’s also kind of feast or famine. We’re not able to expand our programming in areas we need to, and the grant we wrote [for the opioid settlement funds] was for some of those expansions.”

Rick said the programming at Celebrate Recovery is multi-faceted since it’s both reactive and proactive; reactive to the problems the patrons already face but also proactive in its programming for children and teens by getting them to talk through their family’s problems rather than “act them out.” Celebrate Recovery has programming for children of all ages, from a nursery for infants through 4-year-olds; a group called Celebration Place for ages 5-12, and one called The Landings for those ages 13-19. That group for teenagers meets at the new community center in Brighton run by HUB (Helping U at Brighton), which opened last year.

All of Celebrate Recovery’s weekly gatherings begin with a meal at 6 p.m. before attendees break off into their own age-specific groups. Rick and Anne said they’ve been averaging 35-50 people at their meetings in Brighton for the last four months.

Celebrate Recovery Washington is led by Chuck Clifton, who has expressed an interest in taking its curriculum into the Washington County Jail. Celebrate Recovery also receives support from HUB Director Mitchell Vine, and Brian Simmons, a counselor with River Hills.

Rick and Anne said Celebrate Recovery started in 1993 as an initiative of Dr. John Baker Sr., pastor at Saddleback Church, who wanted to incorporate eight principles from the Beatitudes into a recovery program. From that first meeting in his church with 42 people, the organization now has 30,000 chapters across the world, and has touched the lives of 10 million people.

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Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com

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