A local business founded to give people overcoming addiction a second chance has received $270,000 in federal funding to help its mission.

Hope & Coffee’s award comes from the Appalachian Regional Commission, a federal-state partnership that works to support economic development and improve the quality of life in the Appalachian region.

The funds will help people in recovery learn employment skills and access economic opportunity. Through the 2-year program, participants will receive on-the-job training, work-readiness skills and transition assistance to permanent employment.

It’s another win for the already successful shop at 137 Pine St., said Micah Gursky, executive director of the Tamaqua Area Community Partnership, which oversees Hope & Coffee.

“Hope & Coffee is a great asset and resource for our community. It has become a national model for creating a recovery-friendly public space that provides job opportunities and training for people in recovery,” Gursky said. “Every time someone buys a coffee they are supporting and normalizing recovery.”

The award is from the ARC’s Investments Supporting Partnerships in Recovery Ecosystem Initiative, which was established in 2021, explained Gayle Manchin, ARC federal co-chair.

“What happened is that we realized in the Appalachian region, the opioid epidemic had become so devastating in our states and communities that we knew something had to be done,” she explained.

Overdose mortality rates from 2020 reported that people between the ages of 25 and 54 in the Appalachian region were 61% higher than the rest of the country.

The agency found that for people to turn their lives around, and for a rehabilitation and back-to-work effort to be successful, a host of factors were needed.

“It needed to be a continuum. It couldn’t just be recovery efforts. It had to be ‘What happens when the person comes out of recovery?’,” Manchin explained.

The INSPIRE grants, she said, were devised to provide for training, counseling, housing, transportation and health care.

“It is a community problem,” Manchin said of the opioid epidemic, “and it needs a community to help solve it.”

The local grant will allow participants in the Hope & Coffee program to receive community health care, trauma-informed care and stigma education through St. Luke’s University Health Network. In addition, Lehigh Carbon Community College will provide accessible job and skills training, and the PA CareerLink REAL Re-Entry Program will assist with job placement, coaching and supportive services.

Since its inception, Manchin said the program has provided more than $28 million to 84 recovery-to-work projects in the ARC’s 13 state region.

She’s been able to visit some of the places that received the grants.

“What this does is it gives people hope again. It give them a sense of purpose - a feeling they are needed, and they are needed in their community,” she said. “I think that’s what turns people’s lives around. Having a sense of hope and purpose is really what the success of these grants is,” Manchin said.

With the ARC funds, Hope & Coffee will also be able to expand its operating hours and continue providing meeting space to recovery groups.

It will also add mobile service so it can take its coffee - and mission of combating the stigma of substance use disorder - to farmers’ markets, festivals and special events.

The ARC recently released a request for proposals for its fourth round of INSPIRE funding. Final applications are due March 17. More information is available from INSPIRE section of the ARC website at https://www.arc.gov/sud/