Enfield pastor sets up fund to help fight addiction
Rev. Dr. Greg Gray, pastor of the Enfield Congregational, United Church of Christ, has started a fund to help local residents fighting addiction.
The fund began seeking donations on Nov. 1, and will help those with drug addictions pay for treatment.
Gray said he set up the fund for Enfield residents, because he knows firsthand what being in recovery is like.
“This is for anyone, who is an Enfield resident, who is seeking recovery,” Gray said. “We will write a check to the facility they are going to.”
The process is simple. A person can find an application on the church’s website, http://www.enfielducc.org/recovery/, fill it out, including the facility from which they are receiving treatment, and receive up to $500 to help defray their expenses.
“If someone is going to a rehab facility, we’ll write a check to a the rehab facility,” Gray said. “If they need help with a first month’s rent at a halfway house, we’ll write a check to that facility as well.”
Gray said the desire to create this fund comes from a personal connection, as well as a sense of wanting to help the community during the pandemic, when resources for addiction are getting more slender.
“I’m in recovery myself. I’ve got 15 years clean. This is something near and dear to my heart,” he said. “Especially during this global pandemic, many 12-step meetings have closed, or have gone to Zoom or those kinds of things. People who were not already plugged into the system have been left behind. They’ve been isolated. The number of relapses and funerals during the pandemic has been crazy. I had seen the need in the community and pitched it to the powers that be, here at the church.”
Gray said he keeps, in his office, a stack of recovery literature, for people who don’t know where to go to seek resources, as well as “a couple of boxes of Narcan.”
“I feel it’s highly important for us, in this day and age,” he said. “Whenever we say we’re here to serve the community, it’s in those capacities - making sure people stay alive is kind of at the top of that list.”
Funding for this program has come from the church, as well as private donations. Gray said that, as of Nov. 23, there has been just one request, but he expects more. He also hopes that publicizing this fund will help raise some awareness and help mitigate some of the stigma that comes with addiction.
“I talk openly about it all the time. I think it’s a big part of who I am, and what my ministry is,” Gray said. “For moms and dads and grandma and grandpa, there’s still a stigma about, ‘I’m not going to talk about the problems that little Johnny is having.’ So, getting this information spread out into the community can be hard.”
Postcards about the fund are also being distributed to local package stores and other places where people can be reached.
People wishing to contribute financially to this ongoing effort may send checks to United Church of Christ, Enfield Congregational at P.O. Box 3171, Enfield, CT 06083, designated for the Recovery Fund.
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