Fighting addiction: FAVOR meetings begin Thursday
Laurens County, SC – FAVOR-Laurens County, a new subgroup of FAVOR-Greenville, will assist Laurens County families who are trying to help loved ones fighting addictions.
FAVOR stands for Faces and Voices of Recovery, and its first Family Support meeting of the new group will be this Thursday evening, Sept. 14, from 6:30 to 8 p.m. It is free of charge for anyone and will meet upstairs at Lakeside Country Club, 1 Country Club Drive, Hwy. 76, Laurens. The meeting time and location, positioned between Laurens and Clinton, should remain the same each week.
Trained staff and volunteers from FAVOR-Greenville will moderate the family counsel programs in Laurens. They are open to anyone, and the weekly meetings are free to attend. Greenville meetings are heavily attended and many Laurens County families have gained assistance there, which is a primary reason the LCHCF decided to bring a FAVOR group here..
“We have trained Family Recovery Coaches who moderate the meetings,” said Rich Jones, who started the Greenville chapter of FAVOR. “This first group will be educational in nature, providing an overview of addiction and recovery and how the family is impacted.”
While FAVOR-Greenville family support groups tend to draw families whose loved ones have opiate addictions, each community is different and the type of drug is not what’s important, Jones told the steering committee at a recent meeting. FAVOR offers tools to help the family remain healthy and in many cases, can help their addicts seek needed recovery.
FAVOR is a non-profit support organization and not a rehabilitation program. FAVOR-Laurens County is being funded for a full year by the Laurens County Health Care Foundation. Each year it raises funds which are then passed on to health-related organizations which positively impact the health of Laurens County residents. In past years the LCHCF has provided funding for the Laurens County Cancer Association, Good Shepherd Free Medical Clinic, diabetes education and other programs, but its board decided this year to focus on the fast-growing plague of addiction.
