Welcome to the Fall 2025 Edition of the Council Connection!
For nearly 80 years, Recovery Resource Council has been a trusted neighbor across North Texas, standing alongside veterans, youth, families, and individuals on their journeys toward hope and healing. Your generosity has fueled this legacy—helping us expand vital programs, strengthen partnerships, and meet growing community needs with compassion and care.
In this fall issue, we reflect on the resilience of the recovery community during Recovery Month, celebrate the outpouring of generosity you helped inspire on North Texas Giving Day, and shine a spotlight on the leadership of Tamieka McLaurin, our Assistant Director of Housing Services. We’re also excited to share the latest progress from our Transforming for Tomorrow Campaign, which is bringing our new West Campus in Fort Worth closer to reality. Together, these stories demonstrate the power of your support and the momentum you make possible as we look ahead to the next chapter of recovery in North Texas.
Agency Updates:
Recovery Month Reflections
This September, the Council celebrated Recovery Month and reaffirmed our commitment to championing evidence-based treatments, elevating voices of resilience, and honoring the service providers who make recovery possible. We were proud to take part in Recovery in the Park—an event that brings community members together in celebration of hope, healing, and renewal.
This year’s theme holds even greater significance as the Council approaches a milestone: 2026 marks our 80th anniversary. What began in 1946 as the Dallas Committee for Education on Alcoholism soon grew alongside the Fort Worth Council on Alcoholism, founded in 1957 to serve Tarrant County. Both agencies expanded through the decades—adding school-based prevention programs, housing for chronically homeless individuals, and mental health services for veterans—before merging in 2018 to form today’s Recovery Resource Council. Together, these legacies built the foundation for one of North Texas’ leading nonprofit behavioral healthcare providers.
Around the same time the Council was founded, Marty Mann, a pioneering advocate and one of the first women in long-term recovery with Alcoholics Anonymous, founded the National Committee for Education on Alcoholism (later NCADD). Her groundbreaking advocacy helped shape public understanding of alcoholism as a disease—and her efforts laid the groundwork for local programs like ours.
Today, the Council meets modern-day challenges with the same pioneering spirit. We serve over 60,000 individuals annually across 20 North Texas counties through outpatient treatment, prevention education, veteran support, housing services, and the innovative Overdose Response Team. Our prevention programs now reach thousands of youth in schools, offering life-skills and health promotion classes to steer them away from substance use and toward informed choices.
Why Recovery Month matters now—and always—is that it ties our historical roots to today’s challenges. From teaching alcoholism education in the 1940s, to merging two councils to strengthen regional impact, to launching overdose intervention teams—our work remains grounded in adapting to current needs while honoring the past.
As we celebrate recovery this fall, we do so standing on the shoulders of decades of advocacy, education, and transformation. Here’s to nearly 80 years of hope—and to envisioning the next chapter of recovery in North Texas.
Community Engagement:
North Texas Giving Day Success
On September 18, our community came together for North Texas Giving Day—and the impact was remarkable. Together with generous support from The Morris Foundation, the Council raised $34,000 to strengthen recovery services across the region.
This achievement was truly a team effort. We are especially grateful to our Board of Directors—particularly Stephan Gomez—and staff members, who stepped up through peer-to-peer fundraisers, sharing their personal stories and rallying their networks to support the Council. Their leadership helped spread our mission far and wide, ensuring even more neighbors joined in giving.
Every dollar raised fuels recovery—from providing housing and mental health care for veterans, to prevention programs for at-risk youth, to life-saving overdose response services in our community.
To every donor, advocate, board member, and staff member who stood with us this Giving Day: thank you. Your support ensures that for nearly 80 years—and for generations to come—the Council can continue to provide hope and healing to North Texans in need.
Staff Spotlight:
Meet Tamieka McLaurin
With 18 years at the Council and over two decades of experience in housing and homelessness services, Tamieka McLaurin brings great expertise, leadership, and heart to her work every day.
Tamieka began her career with the Council in 2007 and currently serves as Assistant Director of Housing Services, where she leads our Supportive Services for Veteran Families (SSVF) program—an initiative funded by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs that prevents and addresses homelessness among veterans and their families. Under Tamieka’s leadership, the SSVF grant expanded this fall—from a $1 million effort to a $4 million regional program spanning more than 40 counties in North and West Texas.
Her responsibilities also include overseeing our Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) programs for chronically homeless individuals, managing our Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) compliance across multiple partnering agencies, and supporting intensive case management for clients navigating complex challenges like substance use, domestic violence, and mental health conditions.
Tamieka holds a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work from the University of Louisiana at Monroe and is a Licensed Baccalaureate Social Worker (LBSW). Her background in program development, grant management, and trauma-informed care is matched only by her deep compassion and advocacy for those we serve.
“I’m naturally a helper and a fixer,” Tamieka says. “Seeing the good in people and helping them see it in themselves is a passion. Everyone deserves a chance to be better than they were yesterday.”
Throughout her tenure, Tamieka has been instrumental in launching and expanding critical permanent supportive housing programs like Project New Start and Shelter 4 Hope, building community partnerships, and mentoring teams dedicated to changing lives. Whether she’s leading strategy meetings or helping a client regain housing stability, Tamieka embodies the Council’s mission of creating hope, healing, and lasting change.
Supporting Our Mission:
Transforming for Tomorrow Campaign Progress
Since 1946, the Council has been a beacon of hope for North Texans facing mental health, substance use, and housing challenges. Today, thanks to the support of our community, we are writing the next chapter of that legacy through our Transforming for Tomorrow Campaign.
This $5.1 million initiative is already in motion. In February 2025, we celebrated the groundbreaking of our new West Campus in Fort Worth. By summer, the old buildings had been demolished, and today, the foundation and framing of a modern, state-of-the-art facility are taking shape. What was once just a vision is now coming to life—brick by brick.
When complete, the West Campus will bring together critical services under one roof, creating a more efficient, welcoming, and accessible space for veterans, youth, families, and individuals in need. Renovations at our East Campus in Dallas will further enhance our ability to serve the community with dignity and care. Together, these projects will expand our reach and ensure that every North Texan has access to the life-changing support they deserve.
We’ve come a long way, but we’re not there yet. To complete this transformation, we need your help to bridge the remaining funding gap. By joining us now, you’ll play a direct role in shaping a brighter, healthier future for thousands across North Texas.
Be part of this historic moment! Together, we can ensure that wellness and recovery are within reach for everyone—today, tomorrow, and for generations to come.
After 14 years in recovery and a complete life transformation, Gloria Sotelo now serves as a leading counselor in the Council’s Recovery Now outpatient program. Every day, she offers her clients not just clinical expertise, but a lived understanding of what it means to survive, rebuild, and thrive.
The Council’s Enduring Families program has a new recruit, and he’s got four paws and a wagging tail! Bronson, our therapy dog in training, is already making an impact—when veterans and their families walk through the door, the first thing they ask is, “Where’s Bronson?” Hearing his name, he eagerly greets them, offering warmth and connection from the start.
Our Enduring Families program provides free free individual, couples/marriage, and family psychotherapy for veterans and their family members, as well as child-centered play therapy for children ages 4 and older. Research shows that animal assisted therapy can lower stress, improve symptoms of PTSD, and foster emotional resilience—all crucial for mental health, recovery, and wellness. Even in training, Bronson is already bringing comfort, connection, and a little extra joy to those who have served.
Sponsors play a vital role in our RRC family, enabling us to continue our mission of improving and saving lives. Table sponsorships begin at $1,500, and individual tickets are available for $250 in limited quantities. Each sponsorship level offers unique benefits, and we encourage you to secure your sponsorship by April 18, 2025, to receive full advantages.
