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The Community Opportunity, Network, Navigation, Exploration and Connection Team (CONNECT) is a 24/7 rapid response team created by the Opioid Task Force and a partnership that includes The RECOVER Project, Tapestry, law enforcement from 30 area communities, the Children’s Advocacy Center of Franklin County and North Quabbin, and the North Quabbin Recovery Center, among others.

Sarah Ahern, also a peer recovery coach with The RECOVER Project, emphasized that numbers are more than just data — each point on a graph represents the end of a human life and the unquantifiable grief that shrouds families and communities in the wake of an overdose.

“You can look at data numbers — those are human beings, those are people, those are somebody’s brother, sister, mother, father, cousin, aunt, uncle, grandfather,” Ahern said sitting next to Daignault in The RECOVER Project’s office. “Those people were loved by their family and we talk about these losses. They’re human lives and the weight of that is heavy.” […]

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Kara Kavanaugh, the recovery coach program supervisor at The RECOVER Project, paints the front window on Friday. For the Recorder/Catherine Hurley[/caption]

By CHRIS LARABEE, JULIAN MENDOZA and CATHERINE HURLEY
Staff Writers

As the weather warms up and people celebrated Earth Day over the weekend, folks around Franklin County took their spring cleaning beyond the walls of their homes and helped clean up their communities.

Cleaning kicks off in Greenfield

At The RECOVER Project in Greenfield, a handful of people gathered to pick up trash along Federal Street on Friday.

Near the Hangar Pub and Grill, Melanie Farr and her son, 11-year-old Henry Rollins, gathered pieces of glass, cans and wires into city-issued blue trash bags.

“It’s more inviting. It looks better,” Farr said of the street as she walked along, adding to her bag.

Inside The RECOVER Project office, Kara Kavanaugh, the recovery coach program supervisor, painted a scene of grass and flowers on the building’s front windows. Earth Day and the cleanup provided an opportunity to change the painting for spring, she said.

“It’s a city that keeps giving back, and we want to give back to the city,” Tom Lavoie, The RECOVER Project’s peer and community engagement coordinator said as he collected trash outside. “It’s pride. We live here.” […]

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