Mission

Central City Concern works to help individuals move from homelessness and poverty to lives of self-sufficiency and independence. CCC formed RAP, a peer-led recovery community organization, under an earlier RCSP grant, and RAP is now providing recovery support services in the Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington metropolitan area, as well as in Oregon’s Mid Willamette Valley.

Resource Center and Resource Coaching

Close to downtown and transit-accessible, the RAP Center operates 11 hours a day, Monday-Thursday, and 8 hours on Fridays, functioning as a drop-in center where people in recovery are available to help their peers access resources and build relationships in a clean and sober environment. The Center has staff offices, a resource and referral center with computers, meeting rooms, several large rooms used for classes and activities, a kitchen, and café.

Peer resource coaches staff the reception area, handle phone inquiries, and work with peers to find housing, employment assistance, and other resources. They also offer assistance with computers, Internet, phones, and fax. One popular service provided by the coaches is assistance with resume preparation.

Classes and Workshops

People in recovery design and teach all classes at the RAP Center, creating much variety. Classes and workshops, repeated quarterly, are announced online and in a RAP newsletter. Examples include:

• Regular classes: Computer basics, RAP orientations, and Yoga classes
• Trainings: Conflict Resolution for 12 Steppers, Finding a Job with a CriminalBackground, Prostitution Recovery, RAP Basics, and Turning Story Into Issue
• Workshops: Creative Writing, Returning to School, Men & Addiction, Communication, Advanced Leadership, Recovery Coach Training, Meditation, and Vision Quest.

Social Activities and Mutual Aid Groups

The RAP Center is a recovery community hub with peers keeping the second floor open nightly and weekends for activities, including movie nights, bingo, music jams, large meetings, and dances. Peers host a variety groups, including well-attended RAP membership meetings and mutual support groups such as Secular Organizations for Sobriety (SOS), SMART Recovery, and numerous 12-step groups.

RAP’s city league softball team has brought home numerous championship trophies. Recreational “pick-up” softball games happen every Saturday in the summer, organized by a peer. RAP also sponsors the annual Recovery Month activity, “Hands Across the Bridge,” the Northwest’s highest profile, multicultural, family-friendly event educating the public that recovery saves lives and transforms our communities.

Participation in Access to Recovery Initiative

One of RAP’s most recent contributions to the expansion of recovery support services has been providing technical assistance on peer services to Washington State programs involved in the ATR initiative.