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Optimae Recovery & Resource Center in Fairfield provides free services and free food
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
FAIRFIELD – Optimae Recovery & Resource Center in Fairfield offers free meals, activities and programming five days a week.
When a person needs a helping hand, to fill their empty stomach, or just wants to enjoy another’s company, they can turn to Optimae. For some people, the resources offered at Optimae’s office at 301 W. Burlington Ave. are indispensable, and they use them every chance they can. Client Preston Halverson told The Union he’s been coming to Optimae nearly every day for the past eight years.
Halverson said he appreciates everything Optimae offers from its services to its afternoon activities, and certainly its lunches. The Union asked Halverson if he enjoyed the food.
“Sometimes,” he joked, noting that his favorite meal was lasagna, which the clients happened to be eating when The Union visited on Friday, Aug. 22.
Charity Smith is another Optimae regular who comes almost every day. When asked what she likes about the organization, she replied, “The people and the food, but mostly the food” with a wry smile on her face. She added that she likes the company of the other clients and the staff, and she really likes that they vary the menu often.
“It’s always something different,” she said.
Christine Foster said she comes to Optimae two or three times per week. She enjoys the feeling of camaraderie with the other clients, and enjoys the special activities such as watching a movie on Tuesdays, arts and crafts on Thursdays, and games on Friday.
“You get to watch a movie for free, and you can’t beat that,” Foster said.
Foster echoed Smith’s comments about the two major attractions of Optimae being the friendly people and free food.
“We understand each other because we’ve all dealt with mental illness or a mental disability in one form or another,” she said.
Jeri Odell volunteers her time at Optimae, and has been coming about every day since the end of the pandemic. She said Optimae had a service during the pandemic of giving out meals on Fridays, and she was impressed the quantity and quality of food, giving her enough to eat for the whole weekend. Now that Optimae is hosting gatherings in person, Odell has come to enjoy the friendships she’s made with staff and patrons.
“I come here to hang out, and the people are great,” said Odell.
Optimae’s Recovery & Resource Center in Fairfield has three employees, program coordinator Ashley Yarber, plus assistants Jared Brown and Jylian Brown. Yarber oversees recovery centers in Bloomfield, Burlington and Centerville as well.
Fairfield’s Optimae Recovery & Resource Center is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and lunch is served every day at noon. The daily activities are different each day, with Monday devoted to arts and crafts, Tuesday is movie day, Wednesday is peer-to-peer support and introduction to self-care, Thursday is creativity and wellness, and Friday is games day.
Yarber said that when a person requests the use of Optimae’s services, no diagnosis is required, and the staff don’t usually ask about it. Patrons just have to fill out a sheet of paper with their basic information so that Optimae can show it’s serving a real person.
“We see an array of people, from those with severe disabilities to those who are perfectly normal, and you don’t need a referral,” Yarber said. “We don’t bill insurance or ask for money from our customers. The only thing is that if they do peer support services, we bill Medicaid for those.”
Programs such as introduction to self-care teach patrons the basics about taking care of themselves such as taking a bath, going on a walk, or purchasing a service such as getting their nails done. Optimae serves clients 18 years of age and older, and Yarber hopes to someday expand that to teenagers as well “because they struggle with substance abuse more and more.”
“And we don’t just see people recovering from substance use or abuse. It could be recovering from a diagnosis they received, and it didn’t go over well being told they have a disease,” Yarber said. “We help them make a plan to get through it.”
Jylian Brown said one of the highlights of the job for her is watching the customers enjoy the fun activities, and “get them to open up and have good social skills.”
Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com
