Presented by the Mental Health Association in Chautauqua County, the first North County Art in Recovery Group Annual Show is Friday, September 29, 6–8 p.m. in Dunkirk’s Grace Lutheran Church. Pictured at the recent Jamestown show are Art in Recovery group facilitators Rose Crocker (left) and Carriee Clarke.

On the last work day of National Recovery Month, the Mental Health Association in Chautauqua County is hosting the inaugural North County MHA Art in Recovery Group Show.

According to Steven Cobb, MHA executive director, the exhibit at the MHA’s Dunkirk recovery center in Grace Lutheran Church will include “light refreshments, good fellowship, and lots of art.” The 6 to 8 p.m. Friday event is free and everyone is welcome. Grace Lutheran Church is at 601 Eagle St., Dunkirk.

“More art than we could have imagined was created, just as the program in North County has grown more than we could have imagined,” Cobb said at a similar event in August in Jamestown. The Dunkirk show features all the wonderful art that has been created there as well.”

Rose Crocker and Carriee Clarke, MHA Strong Starts navigators, facilitate the weekly Art in Recovery groups, Crocker in Dunkirk and Clarke in Jamestown. Among the more than five dozen groups and classes at the MHA recovery centers, these are an opportunity for an artistic expression of the participants’ own personal recovery through painting and drawing.

September is National Recovery Month, celebrating individuals during their long-term recoveries and emphasizing that recovery is possible for everyone.

The MHA is a peer recovery center offering support groups and individual coaching for people looking to improve their lives, deepen wellness, thrive in recovery, or support those on a recovery path. Peers use their personal stories to help people find recovery in their own lives in their own way.

Anyone with questions or in need of services for themselves or a family member suffering from a mental health or substance use disorder is welcome to call or stop in at the Jamestown recovery center at Door 14 in the rear of the Gateway Center, 31 Water St. It is open Monday through Thursday from 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.; and Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Hours for the north county recovery center at Grace Lutheran Church in Dunkirk are 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Monday and Wednesday and 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

To learn more about the Mental Health Association, call 716-661-9044 or visit MHAChautauqua.org or facebook.com/MHAChautauqua. A schedule with descriptions of MHA’s dozens of groups and classes is at MHAchautauqua.org/groups.