Community

Lauren’s Wish receives $200K outlay from the Appalachian Regional Commission to further help its clients

MORGANTOWN - Michael Cole had more than 200,000 reasons to feel appreciation, and validation, on Friday.

"It is gratifying to know that people are watching and making note of our work," he said.

The work to which he's referring is the mission behind Lauren's Wish, the drug treatment triage center Cole and a group of his buddies going back to high school founded after the death of his daughter in 2020.

Lauren Cole's demise at the young age of 26, her dad said, couldn't have been more tragically ironic.

She was a social worker who was good at her job. She successfully counseled clients in the throes of drug addiction - even as she secretly waged her own struggle.

A dose of heroin purchased by an old chum and laced with fentanyl - which is 80 to 100 times more powerful than morphine - killed her, Michael Cole said.

"Lauren elevated people," he told The Dominion Post previously.

"She could save everybody but her."

Meanwhile, Lauren's Wish, the triage center, was elevated this week with a grant of $211,700 from Appalachian Regional Commission, which the enterprise will use to bolster its CAREERS program.

The CAREERS program is an arm of the enterprise which helps clients get back to work.

That's by way of job training, transportation assistance and other necessary particulars, Cole said.

"We've done that since the beginning," he said.

Gov. Patrick Morrisey made the announcement this past Monday.

"Overcoming addiction is a tremendous accomplishment, but recovery also means having the opportunity to rebuild your life," Morrisey said of the ARC outlay.

"That's good for our workforce, our communities and the future of our state," the governor continued.

At Lauren's Wish, clients who survive a drug overdose are encouraged to stay at the clinic in Hazel's House of Hope on Scott Avenue for a prescribed number of days, before ideally moving on to long-term recovery options.

Lauren's Wish was Lauren Cole's literal wish.

In the final summer of her life, Lauren talked about the concept that went beyond the prevailing "treat and street" approach: whereby people are immediately treated for an OD, then put right back in the environment that brought them to the hospital in the first place.

"She asked me to help," Michael Cole said.

"Lauren said, 'Dad, can we do this?' and I said, 'Honey, of course we can.' Three weeks later, she was gone."

Meanwhile, Lauren's Wish has seen some 1,700 clients to date, Cole said, with more than 80% of that number opting treatment and recovery at long-term rehabilitative facilities.

"We'll take it," Cole said.

Same for the funding from the Appalachian Regional Commission.

"It's a blessing," he said. "It affirms and reaffirms what we're doing. And that's so important."