The Bucks County-based PRO-ACT organization has won a national award for its work with recovering drug and alcohol addicts.

"They're an exemplary model of how the recovery community can come together as a mobilized force to really impact and improve the lives of individuals and families in their community," said Dannie Greenberg, spokeswoman for Faces and Voices of Recovery, the organization that selected PRO-ACT for the award.

Faces and Voices of Recovery, a national organization that advocates for recovering drug and alcohol addicts, presented PRO-ACT representatives with the Joel Hernandez Voice of the Recovery Community Award this week. The award is given annually to one local, regional or state recovery organization that improves the quality and prevalence of long-term recovery.

Greenberg said her organization's board of directors was impressed with the variety of services PRO-ACT offers and the fact that all of its volunteers are people who have struggled with addictions.

PRO-ACT was chosen out of about 30 recovery organizations that were nominated for the honor, Greenberg said. There are about 200 recovery organizations in the country.

"There are new and emerging recovery communities every year," Greenberg said. "PRO-ACT is, if not the oldest, among the oldest."

PRO-ACT (Pennsylvania Recovery Organization - Achieving Community Together) is a project of the Bucks County Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence. It serves people in Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery and Philadelphia counties.

It was formed almost 12 years ago, when leaders at the council decided to bring people in recovery together so they could help each other, and by doing so, help themselves.

"Part of what this disease needs is a way for the community to grow. We wanted to make sure there was an entity so people could learn how to get involved in the recovery community," said Executive Director Beverly Haberle.

"We wanted to be as available to people new in recovery as the drug dealers are."

The organization's early volunteers talked about the services they needed - or wished they'd had - when they were new to recovery, surveyed others in recovery and talked to professionals. Their research resulted in a wide variety of services for people trying to overcome addiction, including a 24-hour support hot line, recovery centers where people can get employment counseling and other services, life skills programs where people can learn how to sustain recovery, a mentoring program for men and women leaving prison, and a family education program where family members can learn about addiction.

PRO-ACT has events like movie nights and trips to baseball games for the people it serves.

"We teach them that sobriety is fun," said Allen McQuarrie, co-chairman of the organization's board.

Haberle said the organization is working with the University of Pennsylvania to keep track of relapses and recidivism, and gauge its success. And she said the research shows that the people who go through PRO-ACT's programs are able to sustain their recovery longer than average.

PRO-ACT also lobbies for the rights of those in the recovery community - to end discrimination and get more funding for recovery programs.

"Our volunteers have worked very hard. Our staff has worked very hard. So it's very validating," Haberle said, of winning the award.

"They talk about this as pioneering work. And when you do pioneering work, you don't always get great receptivity. This is a very validating event for us - that a lot of the work that we've done over the years is being recognized."

Christina Kristofic can be reached at 215-345-3079 or ckristofic@phillyBurbs.com.