News and Events

Root Donates Oldest Clinic to City of Hartford

In October, the Root Center donated our oldest clinic to the City of Hartford. Our beloved Doctors Clinic on Main Street was recently replaced with our new Lafayette Street Facility, and the more than 700 patients served are continuing to receive care in a brighter, more modern space. 

Root Center is one of the longest operating nonprofits in Connecticut, and this amazing and historic building will always be close to our hearts, serving our patients diligently for decades.



We are so grateful to Mayor Arunan Arulampalam for his support of the Root Center, and we are honored to hand over the keys to this historic site. We look forward to seeing what the city of Hartford will go on to do with this space that is conveniently located in the heart of the capital city. 

Root Center Partners Win Construction Awards

Also in October, Root Center was honored to attend the Connecticut ABC 2025 Excellence in Construction Awards.

We are so proud to be in partnership with Nosal Builders, who have helped us build our beautiful Lafayette Street Clinic in Hartford and Washington Street Clinic in Middletown. Nosal won two awards for these buildings. We also want to congratulate and thank Tecton Architects and Interior Building Contractors on their awards for these projects, as well. 



Root is thankful for the continued partnership with such wonderful outside contractors who have put forth such beautiful work that has helped benefit our staff and patients alike!

Root Center on NBC CT

Root Center would also like to extend a special thank you to NBC CT for our recent feature on the news. Take a look at the video above to learn more about our mental health offerings for both adults and adolescents available out of our Middletown Saybrook and Branford locations, as well as in certain school systems. Please click on the image above to watch the segment.

Community Forum- Scrolled Out:

Social Media and the State of Our Minds

In January, we kicked off the year with our most recent Community Forum, "Scrolled Out: Social Media and the State of Our Minds". It was an insightful conversations about our digital age, and the impacts of social media on mental health. 

We were fortunate to have a very diverse and experienced group of panelists, which included: 

• John Murphy: UConn Digital Media & Design Professor and Digital Health Advocate
• Paul Weigle, Associate Medical Director for Natchaug Hospital, a Hartford HealthCare Behavioral Health Network partner, at UConn Medical School
• Keith McGilvery, Good News Guy and Journalist
• Micheal Shelby, LPC, Founder and Director of Technology Addiction Center, LLC, and Plan Be Counseling, LLC
• Aly Fox, Root Center Clinic Supervisor
• State Representative Gary Turco

To watch the full recording, please click on the image below. 

You can follow Root on social media to learn more about events like these, and stay tuned for our next forum, which will be held later this year in the summer. 

Root Center Hosts First Art Show

Calling all Artists!

Root Center is pleased to present New Beginnings, an art exhibition celebrating recovery, hope, and renewal on the eve of the Vernal Equinox. On March 19th from 6-8pm, Root Center will host this juried art show at our Branford location, featuring work by local artists exploring the theme of new beginnings.

Much like recovery itself, the exhibition reflects the possibility of change, growth, and redefinition. The selected works invite viewers to consider what it means to start again—whether through healing, self-discovery, or the quiet courage it takes to move forward. Timed with the return of spring, New Beginnings honors transformation as both a personal and collective experience. Artists are encouraged to interpret new beginnings broadly.
 
Location:
Stony Creek Medical Center, 6-12 Business Park Drive, Branford, CT 06405

Submission: Please submit all pieces for consideration via email to margaux.farrell@rootcenter.org by FEBRUARY 16, 2026. All submissions will be responded to by February 20th.

Special thanks to Alex Ranniello, MA for your collaboration as our juror on this exciting project! You can visit our website for more information on this exciting event!

Patient and Family Education Committee Meet n Greet

Our Patient and Family Education Committee is committed to spreading the word about Root Center. If you are interested in learning more about our mental health services for adults and teens at our Middletown Saybrook and/or Branford locations please join us at our next meet n greet! On February 19th, from 9am-11am, stop by 520 Saybrook Road in Middletown to learn more about our services, meet our counselors and patients, and tour our facility to figure out if Root Center is right for you. No sign up necessary, we're just happy to see you. Hope you can make it!

Team Updates and Openings

Root Celebrates One Year in New Haven County

Wow! Back in September, Root reached an incredible milestone of being open and offering care in New Haven County for a year! 

For the first time in Root's history, we are now accepting and treating patients for addiction and/or mental health care in New Haven County.



This new clinic is located at 6-12 Business Park Drive in Branford, conveniently inside of a medical office building with direct access to many other providers for additional care, if needed.

Root Staff Holiday Part

At Root Center, one of our values is to renew yourself to share your strength. With that in mind, something we always look forward to is our annual holiday party, a time for our staff and loved ones to come together to celebrate a year of hard work with good fun! We thank the Farmington Gardens venue for once again hosting such a fun and inviting celebration.

This year's party had great food, music, two photo booths, caricature artists, raffles, and giveaways! It is always a fun evening to let loose and bond with each other. 

Congrats on 25 Years Darcie!

At Root, we believe it is important to celebrate our staff accomplishments and achievements, and we recently had one staff member reach an incredible milestone... 25 years with the organization!

Over the course of 25 years, Darcie Boiano, Executive Administrator, has seen the many changes our organization has gone through. From our name change of "The Hartford Dispensary” to “The Root Center for Advanced Recovery”, she has been committed to the community and care of our patients, working tirelessly behind the scenes to help the executive leadership team, our Board of Directors, and an ever-growing staff.

Darcie is getting ready to retire later this year, and we are so thankful for all that she has done over the years. Dedication like hers is endlessly appreciated, and we are so excited to continue to grow, knowing that legacy staff members always have our back. She will leave very big shoes to fill! Please click on the image below to watch Darcie's feature.



Want to work for an organization you can stick with for decades? Check out rootcenter.org/careers to see our current opportunities!

New Annual Report

We are pleased to announce we recently released our Annual Report for 2024-2025. This report is filled with many of our highlights and accomplishments over the past year, and it's always nice to look back an appreciate how far we have come and all that we have been able to do.

To view the interactive virtual edition of the report, please click here.

Advanced Recovery Institute

As a reminder, our Advanced Recovery Institute (ARI) is an entity of the Root Center for Advanced Recovery that is committed to research and training to elevate clinical care. ARI is responsible for events like our Community Forums, our research endeavors, and our monthly Clinical Grand Rounds.

Clinical Grand Rounds

Our 2024-2025 Clinical Grand Rounds schedule officially started in July. We are very excited for our upcoming year of exciting speakers that we have set for the months to come. Each month, we host leading speakers from across the country to deliver presentations on important topics regarding mental health and addiction.

These presentations are virtual, free, and open to the public. You can receive Continuing Education Credits (CEUs) for $10, and CEUs are FREE for Root staff members. Learn more about our lineup and register for any of our presentations, including the one later today, here. 

Here at the Root Center, we are always looking to expand our team with like-minded individuals who share a passion for clinical care, and want to better serve the needs of the thousands of clients we serve on a daily basis who struggle with mental health and/or substance use disorder. 

We pride ourselves on being a rapidly growing team offering excellent benefits that will enhance your work-life balance. Start with 37 days off, which includes PTO, holidays, and more. Take advantage of our $2,000 for training and education, up to 10% retirement match, plus comprehensive health benefits!

Check out our current openings here!

We have a podcast, Recovery with Root! We are diving deeper into mental health and addiction topics with leading professionals, researchers, patients, counselors, and so much more! It is hosted by Margaux Farrell, a former Journalist and News Anchor, who is now the current Root Center Chief of Staff. New episodes drop on the first Monday of every month.  Listen and subscribe for free on all major streaming platforms!

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