Drug rehab center opens in Bay Ridge
More than 2 dozen clients have sought help
A Sunset Park-based drug and alcohol rehabilitation center that has been operating for two decades has opened up a satellite site in neighboring Bay Ridge and has already seen a big demand for its services, the founder announced this week.
Speaking at a Community Board 10 meeting on Sept. 15, Donna Mae DePola, president and CEO of the Resource Training and Counseling Center, said her organization opened its new site at 408 77th St. on July 18. The new center, like the main branch at 449 39th St. in Sunset Park, offers rehabilitation and counseling services to drug and alcohol abusers.
“We have 27 clients,” DePola told community board members. The board advocates on behalf of the residents of Bay Ridge and Dyker Heights. “All of the clients are voluntary. They are not mandated by the court to be there,” DePola said.
Sources told the Brooklyn Eagle that DePola was asked by several civic and religious leaders in the Bay Ridge-Dyker Heights area to set up shop in the community to help stem a rising tide of prescription drug addiction and heroin use among young people. Leaders were impressed by her track record in Sunset Park, sources said.