CLEVELAND, OH – Today, U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) helped dedicate a new addition to the Women’s Recovery Center in Cleveland. The new addition at the Women’s Recovery Center, when completed, will help increase the Center’s capacity from 275 to 475 women and help reduce wait time for women seeking treatment. 

“Centers like this one are the frontlines of our fight,” said Brown. “I’m excited to see what a difference this expanded center will make in our community, and I look forward to working with everyone here to continue working to get Ohioans the resources you need.”

Brown has led efforts to secure resources for Ohio communities as they continue to combat the addiction crisis. Earlier this year, Brown worked to ensure Ohio is among the first in line to receive its share of the $6 billion in funding Brown helped secure to combat the opioid epidemic nationwide over the next two years.

Brown has also introduced the Collectively Achieving Recovery and Employment (CARE) Act to combine federal workforce and job training grants to address the workforce shortages caused by the opioid epidemic. The bill would combine existing grant programs at the Department of Labor (DOL) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to create a six-year pilot project to combine job training and addiction recovery services. Brown introduced the bill with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) earlier this year, and – at Brown’s urging – a similar provision was included in a bipartisan Senate opioid package that passed out of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee in April.

The Women’s Recovery Center provides substance use disorder treatment for women with a focus on outpatient treatment, relapse prevention, and aftercare.  The Center also provides various services to patients, including family counseling, childcare services, and legal support.

The significance of the completion of phase 1 and 2 of our construction allows us to double our capacity of intensive outpatient treatment services for women and their families.  The lack of childcare remains the single largest barricade for women seeking treatment, in a few short weeks we will be caring for children on-site from the age of two weeks to 12 years,” said Mary Jane Chichester, Executive Director of the Women’s Recovery Center.

Brown was also joined by Center leadership and a patient who receives treatment at the center.

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