Our Mission

Due to COVID-19 the addiction and recovery community is experiencing significant disease and loss.  We recognize that this is a difficult period for many people, and we know that people with addictions are at the intersection of everything associated with COVID-19 loss.  They are at higher risk for infection and spread, many are losing their jobs and their housing, others are drinking and using more drugs due to increases in their levels of stress.  Families are faced with difficult decisions regarding their loved ones.  People are dying from fatal overdose at higher rates than ever before in Virginia and in the country at large.  

There is also increased risk because the very strategies for maintaining recovery are those that put people at high risk to contract COVID-19.  People recover in communities of support.  Isolation, social distancing and quarantine, while good to slow the spread of the virus, lead to greater hopelessness and despair.  For our elders in recovery, this time is particularly challenging as well.  Mutual support group meetings are largely online instead of in churches or other face-to-face settings.  These groups are not only beneficial for their direct recovery support, they are also often the lifelines of fellowship for individuals and families in recovery.  Many of our elders do not effectively use technology, which puts them in a more isolated and vulnerable state.

People are dying from fatal overdose at higher rates than ever before in Virginia and in the country at large.  

Our Support

With a generous grant from the St John’s Charitable Trust, SpiritWorks Foundation launched the Serenity Shawl Initiative on October 30, 2020.  The grant allowed SpiritWorks to cover the necessary costs to provide 100 Serenity Shawls to individuals.  All Serenity Shawls are given free of charge.

The Serenity Shawl initiative is akin to the Prayer Shawl ministries found in many Episcopal Churches, with a few differences in our model.  We mail and deliver shawls to those in need and to those who request them.  We have incurred start-up costs to provide yarn, needles, etc. to those who will be making the shawls, if they request them.  We hope to continue to receive donations of time, actual production, and materials as people hear about what we are doing and want to participate.  This will allow us to sustain the initiative.

We know that some of our recovery elders are among those who knit and crochet.  We have a group of older women on standby who jump-started us. One of ways we keep our recovery is to share it with others, through acts of service.  It’s critical. At SpiritWorks, we envision a larger circle of recovery volunteers of all ages making and delivering Serenity Shawls as they are able.

We are very excited about the possibilities associated with the Serenity Shawl initiative and are confident we have a population who will benefit from making them and a population who will benefit from receiving them.  

A generous grant from the St John’s Charitable Trust has allowed us to launch Serenity Shawls.