A Madras nonprofit has landed more than $1.4 million in state funding to build a dedicated recovery and reentry community center — a facility that advocates say will be unlike anything else in Central Oregon.
SriPonya Collective, which supports individuals navigating recovery from addiction and reintegration into society after incarceration, was awarded the grant through Oregon’s Rural Health Transformation Program. The funds will be distributed over the next two state budget years and directed toward constructing the Brothers & Sisters In Progress Recovery & Reentry Community Center.
A Hub for Recovery Services
“I think we could be the community that’s known for an incredible healthcare ecosystem,” said Jennifer Eales, SriPonya’s executive director. “I think diversity is our strength and that we really have a dynamic population of people. There’s a lot of hope for the future of this county and being dynamically different from the other counties in Central Oregon.”
Currently, SriPonya uses its Madras building as a youth drop-in center, while other recovery and reentry meetings are scattered across multiple locations in the area. The new community center will consolidate those services under one roof, creating a central hub for adult programming in Jefferson County.
Much of SriPonya’s work is peer-led — meaning the people guiding participants through recovery and reintegration are individuals who have lived through those same experiences themselves.
State Backing for Rural Health
Oregon Health Authority Director Dr. Sejal Hathi said the awards reflect a statewide commitment to rural communities. “These awards support practical, community-driven efforts to improve access to health in rural Oregon,” Hathi said. “Rural communities know their needs best, and this funding is intended to help them strengthen local services, expand workforce capacity, and address barriers that make it harder for people to get care close to home.”
Eales said the importance of a dedicated space is hard to overstate. “I can’t think of a place in Central Oregon that is this new model, which is the recovery community center,” she said. “These things are integral to building out that recovery ecosystem here.”
Construction details and a project timeline have not yet been publicly announced. SriPonya Collective can be reached through its website at sriponya.org.