CITY OF NEWBURGH — Abandoned by family and friends.

Shooting up drugs alone in vacant buildings.

Isolation imprisons alcoholics and drug addicts in the throes of their using, and a new City of Newburgh-based program wants to ensure that same isolation does not derail the recovery of the once-broken men and women who finally seek help.

Emotional and psychological support is just one of the services being offered at Onward Recovery, an initiative of Newburgh-based Independent Living that recently launched at 135 Grand St.

Recovering addicts walking through the doors of Onward Recovery’s center will find trained peer counselors, themselves in recovery, who can support their quest to stay clean or offer information on employment, housing and other services.

They can also drop in for support groups or join other recovering addicts for recreational activities and social events. Addicts still using can get referrals to treatment programs, and their suffering family members can also find support groups and information.

“We know from experience … that people don’t recover from treatment alone,” said Damian DePauw, Onward Recovery’s coordinator. “People who are in recovery can network and have a place to come to and be surrounded by other people in recovery after they get out of an inpatient rehab or an outpatient rehab, or during hours when they’re not in a program."

A nationwide surge in prescription-drug and heroin abuse is fueling a flood of addicts into inpatient and outpatient treatment programs.

Between 2007 and 2015 admissions to state Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services-certified programs in Orange County for heroin and prescription opioid abuse surged to 2,341 from 942. Similar increases took place in Sullivan County, from 562 to 770, and in Ulster County, 749 to 1,381.

To support the rise in people seeking and completing treatment programs, the state announced last June that Independent Living and five other organizations would share $10.5 million in OASAS funding to create support networks whose backbones would be people already in recovery.

Independent Living used its $1.75 million portion to open the Newburgh center, which will be a hub serving addicts and relatives of addicts in Orange and four other counties — Dutchess, Rockland, Sullivan and Ulster.

Among the center’s resources are certified recovery peer advocates available to help fragile addicts stay sober and to help solve problems with employment, housing and other needs — the kinds of problems that can drive a recovering addict toward a relapse.

Visitors to the center will find a library of recovery related books, and a monthly schedule of group sessions. Topics range from stress reduction and parenting to aromatherapy and the importance of laughter.

Onward Recovery will also host Spanish-speaking groups and recreational activities.

“Go hiking, go bowling — sober social events that people can partake in because a lot of people who have lived with a substance use disorder don’t know how to go out and have a good time without having alcohol (and) without having the drugs,” DePauw said.

Carl Banks met DePauw at Plum Point Park on Tuesday afternoon for a one-on-one peer counseling session.

Three years ago Banks was being saved from a fentanyl overdose. Now he is 15 months clean, finishing up a treatment program and interested in becoming a peer counselor for Onward Recovery.

What does he think of recovery?

“I’ve never felt this good in my life,” Banks said.

lsparks@th-record.com