Community members gathered for a sober lounge at the Kachemak Bay Recovery Connection office in Homer on a recent Saturday. The music filled event is part of a month-long series to create a supportive substance-free space. The event featured live music from Alaskan artist Jacques Longpre and non-alcoholic beverages.
Barbara McNinch is the vice president of the nonprofit. The local sober lounge is one of several events sponsored by Recover Alaska, a coalition addressing alcohol misuse across the state.
McNinch said Dry January is for people who are “sober curious” or looking for support to stop consuming alcohol.
“Their idea was that if we have these weekly events on Saturdays, this might help people gain the confidence, and also they can come and experience that you can have a great time without alcohol or drugs in this case," she said.
The recovery nonprofit only has one more event for this month. McNinch said the nonprofit plans to continue hosting events and support groups at its headquarters in downtown Homer at the corner of Main Street and W. Pioneer Avenue.
“We also want to be open on a regular basis for people to come in and just kind of have a refuge and a place to go. And we'll have games, etc. You know, it's pretty comfortable downstairs,” McNinch said.
She said the nonprofit is hiring peer support specialists to connect people with recovery resources. Jaclyn Rainwater is the peer support program manager.
“Peer support in general is, to me, when somebody uses their lived experience for whatever they've been through, whether it's substance use or mental health, just having that lived experience and being able to walk with somebody in their journey and advocating for them and helping for them, and just being with them,” she said.
Rainwater hopes to hire people for that role in the next two months and establish regular hours at the organization's office.
“Whether they're looking for just somebody to help them get to appointments, if they want to help going to inpatient treatment, whatever it is in their recovery journey that they're looking for support, hopefully we'll be able to help them with that,” Rainwater said.
She said the organization is in the early stages of developing its peer support program and gathering feedback from the community to better understand their needs.
The final sober lounge event in the Dry January series is on Saturday, with live music and additional non-alcoholic beverage offerings.
