Those in need of support, those in need of structure to help conquer an addiction, those battling co-dependency issues and living in abusive relationships have reached out to one another through a growing ministry at Harvest Church in Washington. Now church leaders are further reaching out to the community, opening doors to the public and to anyone in need of faith-based assistance through Celebrate Recovery.

Celebrate Recovery is just another part of the Harvest Church mission to be a regional resource center, according to Teresa Hamilton, one of the program’s church leaders. To that end, Harvest Church has welcomed regional multi-denominational conference for worship leaders in July; in September, the church, teaming up with many other local churches, hosted a simulcast with Living Proof Ministries founder Beth Moore and has another simulcast coming up with faith-based business coach John Maxwell — this one a joint project with the Washington-Beaufort County Chamber of Commerce.

“We’re opening up not only our building, but our people, to bring opportunities for our region,” Hamilton said.

Billed as a “Christ-centered program that gives people the resources and relationships to help recover from life’s hurts, habits and hang-ups,” Celebrate Recovery offers group support in several categories: for men, chemical dependency, co-dependency and sexual addiction; for women, co-dependency, physical/emotional and sexual abuse and addictions.

“If there’s a need to form another group, we form that on a need basis,” Hamilton said. “Our support groups come together as large groups, then split off into smaller groups depending on what their current need is.”

At Mondays’ general meetings, dinner is held first, at 5:30 p.m., then the men and women split off into their larger groups — to strengthen the level of support offered, according to the church’s website.

“Even though men and women have some of the same issues, some of the reasons for those issues are gender-related,” Hamilton said, adding that often men and women feel more comfortable when sharing their issues with members of the same sex.

Whether the issue is based on weight, self-esteem, grief or chemical addictions, general support groups, as well as step-recovery programs that start every six months, are available. While Celebrate Recovery has been successful within the church membership and word has slowly spread to bring in others, church leaders are encouraging participation from the greater community, the court systems and other government and nonprofit entities with clientele who need a support system.

“It’s been successful and I think that the ones who have been involved have been pleasantly surprised. I don’t think we know what we expected when we first started it, but it’s been a blessing to everybody around,” Hamilton said.

For more information about Celebrate Recovery, call 252-833-4898. Harvest Church is located at 2020 W. 15^th St., Washington.