The Courage Center

860 Park Road
Lexington, South Carolina 29072

(803) 369-3906

Mission Statement

The Courage Center is a non-profit located in Lexington, South Carolina and officially designated as a Recovery Community Organization. An RCO is an independent, non-profit organization led and governed by representatives of the local recovery community. TCC organizes recovery-focused advocacy activities, carries out recovery-focused community education, and provides peer-based recovery support services. The addiction health care continuum consists of prevention, intervention, treatment, and recovery, not only through clinicians and other healthcare professionals, but through individuals with lived experience. Peer support carries great weight when helping others recover from a seemingly hopeless state of mind, body, and spirit. In fact, peer support programs are essential because they are often the one constant that people experience as they move between the other points on the continuum of care. Through shared understanding, respect, and mutual empowerment, peer support helps people become and stay engaged in the recovery process and reduces the likelihood of relapse. Peer support can effectively extend the reach of treatment beyond the clinical setting into the everyday environment of those seeking a successful, sustained recovery process.

Services Offered

TCC provides peer-to-peer recovery support to youth and young adults (ages 15-26) who are recovering from substance use disorder or struggling with substance use, and family members of anyone on a recovery journey. Those services include one-on-one recovery coaching, mutual aid groups, training, education and awareness within Lexington and Richland County schools, and pro-social recreational activities (e.g., ping pong, pool, exercise, mindfulness, basketball). Our campus is stretched across more than four acres with community gardens, a full-length basketball court, a gym, and other vibrant social offerings for our participants. TCC recognizes there are multiple pathways to recovery for youth, young adults, and families. We believe that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect, regardless of their circumstance or condition. As such, our family recovery coaches receive ongoing training and supervision, both of which have a strong focus on meeting families where they are and helping them learn to take the actions on which they are most likely to follow through.

Proudest Accomplishment

Initial funding generously awarded by multiple community partners has allowed TCC to increase our capacity to serve increased numbers of youth, young adults, and families by providing direct recovery support, education, resource navigation, and treatment services, and laying the foundation for service provision documentation and data monitoring. Most notably, we purchased a recovery database recommended by the Association of Recovery Community Organizations, our national membership organization. TCC has further diversified its board of directors, created new partnerships with non-profit and private agencies, and continued joint planning of events and initiatives with schools, churches, and key stakeholder groups such as LRADAC and Prevention Coalitions serving the five Lexington School Districts. Further, in January 2019, TCC received funding from the South Carolina Department of Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services (DAODAS) to hire additional staff, facilitate SMART recovery groups, and begin opiate-oriented recovery meetings.

Staff