commonspace

Amistad helps adults in the Greater Portland area who struggle with mental illness, substance use disorders, and other life challenges. We provide peer support, food, basic life needs (shower, laundry, lockers, mail service, etc.) and an assortment of groups and recovery-focused activities that help people achieve healthier, happier lives.

Our various programs share a focus on peer support as the magic tool of recovery. Peer Support is simply the idea of people who have struggled with mental illness or substance use in the past, stepping in to help people who are still struggling. It is a simple model, but it is a profound and effective one as well.

Our programs also share a readiness to adapt the work to the current situation in the community. Portland, like the rest of the state and the rest of the country, is not the same place it was, even just a decade ago. In recent years we have had to shift our focus to adjust to increasing issues in the community connected to homelessness, changing patters of substance use, and multiple other shifting factors. In just the last year we have added a program of Recovery Residences to meet the need for stable housing for women and men who are battling opiate use disorders. At the same time, our flagship Peer Support and Recovery Center has made adjustments to account for the various ways in which the opiate epidemic is harming our community.

At its heart, Amistad is a place that believes fully in the ability of every person to experience recovery and a fuller life. We have seen recovery happen too many times to give up hope in any person, no matter how mired in their struggle they currently appear to be. We have discovered an alchemy for recovery that is equal parts compassion and accountability, and that combines the provision of our support and resources with a kind, insistent demand that recipients of our services contribute their effort to this work. One testament to the success of this model is the large number of employees who work with us who at one time relied upon our services for survival, compassion, and respect, as well as our persistent nudging to take the small risks that must precipitate meaningful change.

Amistad does none of this in a vacuum. We are as part of this community as is the library, community churches, and schools. We see every person in this community as a stakeholder in our mission. Everyone has a recovery story, whether it is their own, or that of a close friend or family member. Real solutions happen when every sector of the community is engaged and invested in those solutions, and Amistad takes great pride in being part of the solution with all of our partners and friends in this community.

Amistad helps adults in the Greater Portland area who struggle with mental illness, substance use disorders, and other life challenges. We provide peer support, food, basic life needs (shower, laundry, lockers, mail service, etc.) and an assortment of groups and recovery-focused activities that help people achieve healthier, happier lives.

Our various programs share a focus on peer support as the magic tool of recovery. Peer Support is simply the idea of people who have struggled with mental illness or substance use in the past, stepping in to help people who are still struggling. It is a simple model, but it is a profound and effective one as well.

Our programs also share a readiness to adapt the work to the current situation in the community. Portland, like the rest of the state and the rest of the country, is not the same place it was, even just a decade ago. In recent years we have had to shift our focus to adjust to increasing issues in the community connected to homelessness, changing patters of substance use, and multiple other shifting factors. In just the last year we have added a program of Recovery Residences to meet the need for stable housing for women and men who are battling opiate use disorders. At the same time, our flagship Peer Support and Recovery Center has made adjustments to account for the various ways in which the opiate epidemic is harming our community.

At its heart, Amistad is a place that believes fully in the ability of every person to experience recovery and a fuller life. We have seen recovery happen too many times to give up hope in any person, no matter how mired in their struggle they currently appear to be. We have discovered an alchemy for recovery that is equal parts compassion and accountability, and that combines the provision of our support and resources with a kind, insistent demand that recipients of our services contribute their effort to this work. One testament to the success of this model is the large number of employees who work with us who at one time relied upon our services for survival, compassion, and respect, as well as our persistent nudging to take the small risks that must precipitate meaningful change.

Amistad does none of this in a vacuum. We are as part of this community as is the library, community churches, and schools. We see every person in this community as a stakeholder in our mission. Everyone has a recovery story, whether it is their own, or that of a close friend or family member. Real solutions happen when every sector of the community is engaged and invested in those solutions, and Amistad takes great pride in being part of the solution with all of our partners and friends in this community.