Photo / Courtesy Dave Dostie
The space includes a community room, bathrooms, offices, a conference room, a quiet room, and storage space for participants’ belongings.
July 14, 2025
New recovery center opens in Augusta to meet critical need
Photo / Courtesy Dave Dostie
Nearly 200 people gathered last week to celebrate the opening of Maine Recovery Access Project’s Access Center.
The need for a new substance recovery center in Augusta was apparent from the moment it opened last week.
“This is just the beginning — on day one alone, 10 people walked through our doors, including someone who is now connected to treatment and will spend tonight in a detox bed here in Maine,” said Courtney Gary-Allen, executive director of the Maine Recovery Access Project. “Additionally, has anyone noticed no one is under the bridge today?”
The Maine Recovery Access Project, known as ME-RAP for short, opened the Access Center in a leased space at 47 Water St.. Over 183 people attended the ribbon-cutting.
The center blends recovery support with harm reduction, said Gary-Allen.
“Service providers from across the city are coming together to support the Access Center, and I look forward to seeing this space become a cornerstone of our community’s response to substance use,” said Jared Mills, Augusta’s city manager.
The center offers free, peer-based services including daily recovery support meetings, one-on-one peer support, housing and employment navigation, help with accessing treatment and community resources, and essential services like showers and secure personal storage for individuals who are unhoused.
The center also provides access to phones, computers and printing for job searches and benefit applications.
Beyond core services, it fosters community connection through volunteer service days, social events and workshops focused on skill-building, creative expression and wellness.
Accessible location
The space includes a community room for peer support groups, a full and a half bathroom, two offices, a conference room, a quiet room, and storage space for participants’ belongings.
“We selected this location for its accessibility and central position within Augusta,” Gary-Allen told Mainebiz. “It’s close enough to downtown to be accessible but far enough to help move people away from the downtown businesses, which we believe supports both our business partners and our participants.”
The building’s layout, which faces the river, and zoning were also key factors, allowing ME-RAP to create a space that balances the needs of the recovery community and surrounding businesses, she added.
Renovations
The space required significant renovations, made possible through the support of volunteers and local businesses that included Capitol Builders LLC, Quinn's Plumbing, the Home Depot Foundation and Sherwin-Williams.
“We invested $60,000 in cash, received a $20,000 in-kind donation of flooring and installation from the Home Depot Foundation and approximately $5,000 in paint and labor from Sherwin-Williams,” she said. “With hundreds of volunteer hours included, we estimate the total renovation value at around $120,000.”
The Maine Recovery Council provided cornerstone funding for renovations and for two years of operations.
“We expect to announce additional funding for the project in the coming weeks,” she added.
Lived experience
ME-RAP was founded in 2020 through a fiscal sponsorship with Mobilize Recovery, a support nonprofit headquartered in Las Vegas.
What began as a grassroots initiative among friends has since grown into a statewide recovery network. Earlier this year, ME-RAP became an independent nonprofit.
“ME-RAP is led by individuals with lived and living experience of substance use and recovery, as well as family members and allies,” said Gary-Allen. “We provide harm reduction education and support, comprehensive recovery services, youth prevention programming and linkages to health care and housing. We also engage in community listening and legislative advocacy.”
The nonprofit operates alongside a sister organization, the Maine Recovery Action Project, an Augusta nonprofit that focuses on policy change and advocacy.
Today, ME-RAP has eight full-time and two part-time employees.
“We expect to expand to 11 full-time staff by January,” she said. “We also operate a robust volunteer program with over 100 registered volunteers across Maine.”
The organization has trained nearly 3,700 individuals in overdose response to date and distributed more than 5,400 naloxone kits.
“ME-RAP is a vital community partner in downtown Augusta, not only showing up in recovery spaces but also showing up in the streets, organizing community clean ups, connecting with neighbors, with a shared goal of downtown being safe and welcoming for everyone.” said Victoria Abbott, executive director of Augusta food and shelter nonprofit Bread of Life and chair of the Augusta Downtown Alliance.
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