This summer, graduate students in the School of Social Work were creating a Web site.

But RecoverySavannah.org isn’t a typical Web site. It’s aimed at clinicians working with people addicted to drugs and alcohol in the Savannah area, said Donna Bliss, assistant professor in the School of Social Work.

“We want the Web site to put the word out there for people, and for people to use the Web site as a resource,” she said.

Bliss, who teaches an Overview of Substance Abuse class, came up with the idea for a Web site to put forth accurate information on substance abuse.

This is the third site for the recovery of substance abuse she is launching with the help of her students.

“We launched Recovery Athens in September 2007, Recovery Atlanta in September 2008 and now we’re launching Recovery Savannah on [Sept.] 15th,” she said.

Bliss said she wants to launch similar Web sites for all the major cities in Georgia.

“We launch the sites in September because September is National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month,” she said.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of National Alcohol and Drug Addiction Recovery Month. Recovery Month highlights the societal benefits of substance abuse treatment and provides a platform for people and treatment programs to celebrate their successes in substance abuse recovery.

Bliss believes the sites are being used by the community based on the success of the past two sites.

“In the two years since we’ve launched Recovery Athens, we’ve had 2,035 unique visitors and 1,390 unique visitors for Recovery Atlanta in the past year,” Bliss said.

Kerrie Gnann, a graduate social work student who worked on the Recovery Savannah site, said she was intrigued when her professor pitched the idea to her class.

“I was in her class over the summer and she told us we could work on this site as extra-credit,” Gnann said.

Bliss said the site was an eight-week-long project for the 14 students who worked on it. Gnann, who comes from Savannah, said Bliss gave the students a choice of which city they would like to work with.

Gnann pushed for the Savannah area.

“As a future social worker, these are the sort of resources that are going to be helpful,” she said.

“A big part of the Web site was not assuming that clinicians know everything there is to know about substance abuse,” Gnann said. “This Web site is definitely there for anybody who needs the hookup on substance abuse information and statistics.”