BECKLEY, WV (WOAY)—Just two days after the City of Beckley backed out of an initiative to designate Beckley the nation’s first Inclusive Recovery City, organizers are canceling public information sessions scheduled for next week, citing “recent misinformation.”
A press release by Seed Sower, the lead organizer behind the Inclusive Recovery City initiative, announced that community events scheduled for March 18 and 19 have been canceled.
The release says that over 200 people had registered to attend the event. There were a dozen other nonprofit organizations supporting the initiative.
Cracks in the initiative’s future began to appear in the lead-up to Tuesday’s Beckley council meeting. Council members said that they were inundated by calls and messages from constituents questioning the designation’s impact on Beckley.
At the meeting, both council members and city residents pushed back against the initiative.
The next day, Mayor Rappold decided to no longer support the designation and announced that he would not sign the charter. At the time, the public event scheduled for March 19 was shifted from a signing ceremony to a public information session.
Another community informative event was scheduled for the day before, March 18.
Now, it looks like neither event is happening.
In a statement, Jay Phillips, CEO and President of Seed Sower explained the cancellation and said he hopes to continue to work on addiction recovery.
“Recent misinformation about the proposed designation of Beckley as an Inclusive Recovery City has made the planned events no longer constructive, so we will take a pause and refocus our attention on continuing to serve and accept those in our community who are seeking help in their recovery journeys,” he said. “It is my sincere hope that we can leverage our regional support for recovery efforts and revisit an opportunity for meaningful dialogue, allowing everyone to voice their concerns and listen with open minds and hearts”
Newswatch will keep you informed about any more updates about this issue.
