Volunteer coalition pushes back against opioid epidemic

Newsrooms across the commonwealth have spent years documenting the opioid crisis in their own communities. But now, in the special project State of Emergency: Searching for Solutions to Pennsylvania’s Opioids Crisis, we are marshalling resources to spotlight what Pennsylvanians are doing to try to reverse the soaring number of overdose deaths.

WITF is releasing more than 60 stories, videos and photos throughout July. This week, you will find stories about education, prevention and community support.

 

More than 2½ years ago, several hundred residents, law enforcement officers and other representatives packed the Greene County Courthouse for a standing-room-only town hall focused on saving the rural county from its worsening epidemic of drug and alcohol addiction.

“It was the first time I saw the county stand up and say, ‘We have to do something,’” Greene County resident Jonathan Johnson said.

But while the meeting acknowledged the problem, some left frustrated at what they felt was a lack of planning offered to address it.

So the Coalition for a Brighter Greene was formed.

The all-volunteer organization has been working ever since to help alleviate drug abuse in the county.

It sponsored a March for Greene, which on a rainy day in May 2016 attracted approximately 1,400 marchers through Waynesburg, some who displayed signs indicating they’d lost loved ones to drugs.

It installed a substance-abuse prevention program called Botvin LifeSkills Training at all five school districts in the county for grades 3 through 9.

It is working with Steps Inside, a Waynesburg-based recovery club, to set up a hotline for those in need of addiction help.

And it’s also targeting societal side effects of addiction.

The coalition is in the process of establishing an independent Court Appointed Special Advocate program to train and recruit volunteers to help Greene County courts make informed decisions on abused and abandoned children who come before the courts for service and placement.

The coalition is working with Greene County courts and school superintendents to establish a volunteer truancy mediation program designed to reverse the effects of absenteeism by encouraging communication between parents and school personnel and address issues impacting school attendance.

One of the most rural counties in Pennsylvania, Greene has been hit just as hard as more populous areas throughout the state. It ranked sixth statewide in number of drug-related overdose deaths per 100,000 people with 14 in 2015 and ninth with 19 in 2016, according to a report by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Kari Diamond joined the coalition after her son’s father fatally overdosed in February 2017.

“I just wanted to do something,” Diamond said.

Coalition member Tom Schlosser notes, the opposite of ‘addiction’ is ‘community.’

“I think that’s what we’re trying to do,” Schlosser said.