A new event in Bloomington this weekend will offer hope to the families of people battling addiction in the midst of National Recovery Month.

The Thrive Family Recovery Fun Fest hopes to celebrate recovery while also sharing valuable resources with families who do not know where to turn.

The event is being hosted by Thrive Family Recovery Resources, a Minnesota-based nonprofit started by a local mom with her own tragic story.

“We lost our son in October of 2021 to an accidental overdose due to fentanyl,” said Pam Lanhart.

She said her son Jake was introduced to drugs around the age of 12 and struggled with addiction for nearly a decade.

When asked what the worst part for Pam was as a mom trying to navigate this, she responded, “Defaulting to chaos and conflict. I loved my son immensely and the only thing I knew how to do was to try to make him stop and that created so much conflict in our family.”

She said, at the time, there were treatment options out there for Jake but no real help for the rest of the family in trying to navigate the rollercoaster of addiction.

“We just were looking for resources for how to walk through this with our son,” Pam said. “It can be overwhelming. It feels like a full-time job when you’re looking for help.”

She started running her own programs for families in 2016.

Her nonprofit, Thrive, is now run through community donations and grants, which allows them to provide services free of charge.

Thrive received nearly $1 million in funding from the Minnesota Department of Human Services in 2022.

Their programs include connecting families with a peer coach who has lived experience and can provide one-on-one help.

“We’re one of the only organizations in the whole country that does that work and we definitely are the only organization in Minnesota that provides this one-on-one family support for free,” Pam said. “Providing one-on-one peer support for the family member is a concept that’s very new.”

Thrive also offers educational workshops and support groups to equip parents, siblings and even kids with real-life skills for navigating their loved one’s substance use.

She said Thrive reached about 2,700 people in Minnesota last year, including Joi Singleton and Carol Hardy.

Both women have family members who have battled addiction.

“I had a loved one that was really, really in [a] bad place,” Singleton said.

Hardy added, “Nobody wakes up and says, ‘Oh, I think I’ll get addicted to alcohol or meth.'”

They both credit Thrive with changing the course of recovery within their families by offering support and education.

“Life has been so much better ever since,” Hardy said.

Singleton now also works for the nonprofit, hoping to pass along the skills she has learned to others.

“We were in those shoes before also, so we know how it feels and we want people to be welcome with open arms and to know help is there,” Singleton said.

Pam hopes the work Thrive does will honor her son, while also providing families with the help she wished she had.

“More than anything, we really want to bring hope to these families,” Lanhart said.

Sunday’s event is open to the public and will feature free food, kid-friendly activities and wellness exhibitors. Hennepin County Sheriff Dawanna Witt will be there as well.

For more information on Thrive Family Recovery Resources, click here.