Almost 300 community members participated in PEER Services’ 10th annual Step Up for Recovery event Sunday. 

The event is a fundraiser for PEER Services, a nonprofit that provides community-based intervention and substance use treatment for all youth and adults, regardless of income and insurance levels. 

The organization, which has been part of Evanston and Skokie since 1975, has expanded to partnerships with other community groups in addition to hosting prevention programming and information campaigns in local schools. 

This year’s Step Up for Recovery included a community resource fair, a one-mile walk and a raffle. The resource fair included social service organizations such as Connections for the Homeless, Crisis Alternative Response Evanston and Endeavor Health.

Anne Brown, PEER Services’ development director, said these organizations were important to the event because while mental health stigma is decreasing, substance use disorder stigma is not. According to the National Institutes of Health, substance use disorders are among the most stigmatized illnesses in the world. 

Chicago resident Pam Woll attended Step Up for Recovery because her friends live in Evanston. She said she had a substance use disorder 34 years ago and began recovery in a 12-step program. 

“I am a person in long-term recovery and only by having the visibility of something like this (event) can we show the community that these illnesses are really illnesses,” Woll said.

Brown added that the organizations at the resource fair aimed to address substance use disorders and support people “holistically.”

At the Endeavor Health table, staff members provided information on resources for survivors of domestic and sexual abuse and gave hands-on demonstrations on hands-only CPR in addition to administering NARCAN to those who need it.

Joan Casey, a nurse at Endeavor Health, said Endeavor Health and PEER Services overlap in the people they serve. She emphasized that it’s important for community members to understand the signs of someone needing CPR or NARCAN and how to react. 

Before the one-mile walk portion of the event began, members of the PEER Services leadership team, Mayor Daniel Biss and State Sen. Laura Fine (D-Glenview) spoke to attendees. 

Biss said Evanston officials and residents are a “small part of a beautiful constellation” that comes together to provide services to those who need them. He said PEER Services is an essential part of this constellation, and in order for the community to thrive, the organization needs to as well. 

Fine, who chairs the state’s Behavioral and Mental Health Committee, echoed Biss’s sentiment, and said PEER Services’ impact goes beyond helping those facing substance use disorders. 

“When you help one person, you help their family, you help the community, you help everybody,” Fine said. 

Along with counseling, prevention and crisis intervention services, PEER Services has an art therapy program. Monica Morris, PEER Services’ expressive therapies coordinator, said art therapy is a way for clients to express themselves and connect with others. 

Every September, the organization holds an art exhibition called The Joy of Recovery, which aims to humanize people’s experiences with substance use disorders. The exhibit allows community members who haven’t experienced substance use disorders to connect with those who have through art, Morris said.

Brown said programs such as art therapy and prevention education allow PEER Services to educate people about substance use disorder stigma and support all people in recovery. 

She said 90% of PEER Services’ over 650 clients are low-income individuals, and there are more on a waiting list. As PEER Services collaborates with other community organizations, they find more people who need services, she said. 

Evanston resident Michelle Anderson, who attended the event with Woll, emphasized the importance of support systems for people recovering from substance use disorders.

“I want people who suffer from different things to have a support system and to heal and be able to thrive in society, so their families can thrive, just for the betterment of everyone,” Anderson said.

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