The nonprofit Acacia Network held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Wednesday morning for Safe Point Lighthouse, its new addiction treatment clinic in Dunkirk.

In attendance were New York Secretary of State Robert Rodriguez, the Commissioner of the NYS Office of Addiction Services & Supports (OASAS) Chinazo Cunningham, Dunkirk Mayor Wilfred Rosas, Chautauqua County Executive PJ Wendel, as well as Acacia Network CEO Lymaris Albors, its Board Chair Carmen Villa-Lugo, Esq., and its President Raul Russi, and Hispanos Unidos de Buffalo (HUB) Executive Director Eugenio Russi, among others.

The clinic will serve an estimated 500 individuals annually with integrated behavioral health and addiction services that include medication-assisted treatment (M.A.T.), counseling, peer support services, relapse prevention, mental health care and physical examinations, referrals, and more. It will be staffed by counselors, peer specialists, social workers, nurses, and other staff who will use proven harm reduction strategies and deliver trauma-informed, culturally competent care.

“We applaud Governor (Kathy) Hochul and the New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS) for their continued commitment to addressing the opioid crisis in communities where there is a great need, particularly in underserved low-income areas throughout Upstate and Western New York,” says Lymaris Albors, CEO of Acacia Network. “Acacia Network and PROMESA are proud to partner with the State of New York, OASAS, Chautauqua County, and the City of Dunkirk to serve this great community, which boasts a growing Latino population, and in which roughly a quarter of all households live in poverty. We look forward to working together to continue tackling this epidemic and saving lives.”

In the United States, overdose deaths surpassed 100,000 in 2021, an alarming 30% increase from the year prior. In Chautauqua County alone, non-fatal overdoses had already risen 54% and overdose deaths by 18% between 2019 and 2020. While both data points evidenced a worsening crisis, effective harm reduction strategies contributed to the slower rise in fatalities, as the county noted in its release last year.

In response to the need, Acacia Network first launched the Safe Point Lighthouse Mobile Unit on the streets of Dunkirk in April 2021. The van parked at two locations — outside City Hall and at 303 Main Street, the address of its new brick-and-mortar site.

The new facility is made possible through Acacia Network’s partnership with the State of New York and the NYS Office of Addiction Services and Supports (OASAS), as well as the Town of Dunkirk and Chautauqua County.