GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — After 10 years of serving the community, a mental health and addiction center in Grand Rapids is closing its doors due to a lack of funding.
Recovery Academy Executive Director Mike Roaleen says it's a symptom of the mental health funding crisis nationwide.
Roaleen said the academy can't sustain itself financially and a merger deal that seemed promising fell through at the last minute this week, effectively eliminating the only organization of its kind in the state.
On Wednesday afternoon, 24 Hour News 8 met with Roaleen and several clients as they prepared for the academy's final week. It's a place of warmth, conversation and understanding, with all of those who rely on its programs having experienced hardship. While their stories may be different, they all share a yearning to mend.
"It's like a second home to me," client Bryant Pegram said.
He started going to the academy in 2016 after serving more than 20 years in prison for armed robbery. He struggles with depression and ADHD and says the academy was a safe haven to learn how to transition back into society and to move past trauma.
"What are you going to do? You going to get you a place to stay and you pick up the pieces or what," he said, explaining how the academy held him accountable. "They … gave me the tools to work with. So as time progressed, I seen the light."