Bridge Club of Lowell outlines growth, secures five‑year grant for veterans transitional housing

Bob Cox, founder and director of the Bridge Club of Lowell, told the Lowell City Council Nonprofit Organization Subcommittee that the nonprofit has grown from a 2018 startup into a daily recovery and reentry operation serving about 50–200 people per day, running 31 meetings each week and employing 17 people on payroll. Cox said the organization has secured a five‑year grant to provide transitional housing for homeless veterans and is in the process of buying 147 East Merrimack Street for that purpose.

Cox described the Bridge Club’s origins and model: he said he incorporated the nonprofit in 2018 after seeing a recovery “clubhouse” model in Delray Beach, Florida, and opened leased space at 33 East Merrimack Street on Jan. 1, 2020. He told the panel the Bridge Club never closed during the COVID‑19 pandemic and continued to host meetings and services. “We never closed, not 1 day during Covid,” Cox said, adding that the site ran nightly meetings and had no known COVID outbreak tied to the location.

The Bridge Club’s model centers on peer recovery coaches, Cox said: staff and volunteers who are themselves in recovery provide…