Anchor MORE founder honored for addiction recovery work

PROVIDENCE – Jonathan Goyer, founder and manager of the Providence Center’s street outreach program Anchor MORE, has received the Robert S. Burgess Community Service Award.

The honor, presented by the National Association of Social Workers on May 2, recognized Goyer’s leadership in the peer recovery movement, including the distribution of more than 15,000 Narcan kits in an effort to prevent opioid overdose deaths.

Goyer dedicated himself to advocacy for people suffering from addiction after he recovered from an overdose in 2013. Much of his work, he says, is as an activist for those who do not believe that recovery is worth fighting for.

Anchor MORE is a peer-led street outreach program that uses real-time data to target areas throughout Rhode Island in need of recovery support. During 2018, the program logged more than 10,700 conversations within the community about addiction, 280 direct links to inpatient or long-term residential treatment, and 118 referrals for outpatient recovery and treatment support services.

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About 5,000 Narcan kits were distributed last year during street outreach and other interactions, according to the group.

Goyer’s work with peer support specialists has earned national recognition, as well as federal and state grants. He serves as an expert adviser to Gov. Gina M. Raimondo’s Overdose Prevention Task Force, and has written more than 70 published research articles, including in the American Journal of Health.