‘Night of Hope and Recovery’ breaking stigma on substance abuse recovery

SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Members of the South Bend community, including local recovery organizations Wells of Inspiration  and Upper Room Recovery Community, have formed a village to support those battling addiction, hosting the second annual ‘Night of Hope and Recovery’ Tues. evening.

The event was held at Upper Room Recovery Community located at First United Methodist Church in South Bend and featured live speakers and a raffle. It was focused on celebration, hope, and providing resources for individuals in recovery, loved ones, and community members showing support.

“What this is showing people is that recovery is possible, that we can do this. Not everybody comes out, we have to understand that there are people that don’t make it out of this addiction and this disease, but in this case, we’re celebrating the people that have, that want to. We brought treatment centers here that can help people at this moment and we want to show people that recovery is possible and there are plenty of people here that will tell you that they love it and they like their lives now,” said the Executive Director for Upper Room Recovery Community and the Recovery Cafe of South Bend, Molly Kelly.

The Upper Room Recovery Community is a sober living place for men and women. Kelly is seven years clear herself and stepped into the role of Executive Director after feeling called to help others in addiction recovery.

“Substance abuse has become a massive problem in Saint Joe County and our surrounding counties. The problem a lot of times lies with people’s self-worth, and they don’t realize that they’re worth getting clean… substance use is running our streets and the more homeless and the more people that we have that are on drugs the worse that it gets,” said Kelly.

The Indiana Department of Health’s drug overdose dashboard said in Saint Joseph County, there have been 117 total emergency department visits for drug overdoses in 2025. Molly said it goes deeper than that; they see everything from drug addiction, alcoholism, gambling additions and beyond. Learning how to step out of that life is the fight, but it is possible.

“I’ve been in and out of recovery for a really long time. I’ve struggled for a really long time and the best thing I’ve ever heard was just keep coming back and that’s what I did and something’s sticking,” said recovering addict Michelle Anderson. “Community is unity and so the more we’re unified, the bigger we are.”