Walk up the hill.

That’s among the advice offered by jail’s reintegration coordinator Matthew Clayton when people recovering from addiction are released from the Butler County Prison.

Along with a slew of resources, Clayton sends former inmates off with instructions to walk up the hill to downtown Butler, where they can find Glade Run Lutheran Services at 123 E. Diamond St. and the Center for Community Resources at 212-214 S. Main St. — two organizations that will work to help them reintegrate into the community and continue down their pathway to recovery.

Google Maps indicates someone can travel from the jail to the Center for Community Resources by foot in three minutes. The map shows the 0.1-mile journey can be completed by walking up from South Washington to Main Street along either West Vogely Street or West Cunningham Street.

Tracy Leturgey

It’s solid advice and the resources available at those Butler locations are critical to recovery, but we know the pathway for those in recovery is rarely as simple as overcoming one hill.

There’s often many hills. There’s ups and downs, twists and turns and times when someone in recovery might just turn around and walk away from sobriety.

Over the past six weeks, the Butler Eagle has told stories of many who have completed the difficult journey, highlighted resources and looked closely at how recovery efforts are funded.

We’ve shown how addiction’s impact on health care, emergency medicine resources, the court system and schools is compounded by loss of life and the potential of those who have died from overdoses.

But we’ve also shown the difficult journey can be completed as pathways to recovery change and the community joins in the fight.

Helping to straighten the path for those battling addiction are organizations like Glade Run Lutheran Services, the Center for Community Resources, the Ellen O'Brien Gaiser Center, VA Butler Healthcare and Robin’s Home; programs like the Butler County Drug and Alcohol Program and Butler County Community College’s Hope is Dope; and leaders at school districts across the county, the Butler County Prison and countless others.

Butler County has many of the resources to aid in recovery or is in the process of building more.

For instance, next month, a grand opening is planned for a Butler-based recovery center. Called the “Center on Center,” the four-story property at 100 Center Ave. will provide communication resources, networking and healthy activities for people in recovery.

Additionally, the Gaiser center has partnered with the Butler County Drug and Alcohol Program to buy a house at 606 E. Brady St. in Butler, where up to 12 women and their children age 12 and younger can live temporarily as the women prepare to transition to fully independent living. The space will function as a three-quarter house, helping them in the final stages of their sobriety journey.

Bottom line: There are still no shortcuts to recovery.

Actually, there may be detours, lots of hills and bumps along the way.

But it is a journey worth completing, and here in Butler County, there are resources and people willing to help aid along the road.

Tracy Leturgey, assignment editor of the Butler Eagle, grew up in Summit Township and now resides in Jefferson Township. She joined the Butler Eagle staff in 2021.