By
Elizabeth Richards
When
dealing with substance use and addiction issues, hope is something that can be
in short supply. This year, the Be the
Influence (BTI) Coalition, in conjunction with the Windham Area Clergy
Association (WACA), is working to change that.
The
“Spreading Abundant Hope” program kicked off last Sunday, with area religious
institutions including a few minutes of information on prevention and hope for
recovery in their services. BTI has given participating churches 12 talking
points to use to spread the BTI message once a month all year long.
Laura
Morris, Project Director for the BTI coalition, said that along with the
talking points, BTI offers a resource information center for each church, which
includes a range of materials on prevention and recovery resources.
The
initiative began last year, as the BTI coalition worked to better involve the
religious sector in spreading the message of hope and prevention, Morris
said.
Reverend
Tim Higgins of St. Ann’s Episcopal church is on the board of BTI, and chairs
WACA. Higgins said he invited Morris to
a WACA meeting last year so they could talk about what they could do, as local
churches, to be involved with BTI and do something that might make a
difference. That’s where the idea for the Day of Abundant Hope was formed.
“Each
church found a way to use the pulpit to talk about a variety of services that
each church could provide for substance abuse and addiction in the community,”
Higgins said. At St. Ann’s, a member
shared her personal story and then Higgins talked about services available in
the community, he said.
Morris
attended that service and was available afterwards to have conversations with
members of the community. She said she
had at least two people approach her to tell her how much they appreciated the
information, because they didn’t know where to go for help and didn’t
necessarily want to talk about it with others. “That one day went over well and
this year we wanted to do it more significantly,” Morris said.
Higgins
said that when they talked about it this fall, they discussed whether it was
the most effective way to promote BTI in the community. They decided that instead of a one-time
event, they would create the year-long program where the message would be
consistently shared throughout the year.
“In
the religious community, we believe that our bodies are temples of the spirit,
and self-care is a really important piece of that. With that being the case, we
fully promote folks taking care of self in this capacity because it aligns
itself also with what we hear in scripture,” Higgins said.
The
talking points incorporated into services, along with the resources available
on an ongoing basis, will give community members important information about
where they can turn for help. “It’s not
only getting the information out there but it’s making sure that they know
there are local resources that are available to them,” Morris said. “The
presence is right there in their church so as they’re walking out, they can
grab it, but they always know it’s there.”
Morris
said that the hope is that the program will spread beyond the five or six
churches who participated last year and become region wide. While that isn’t the case yet, she said, “If
they’re doing it monthly it really doesn’t matter when they come on, as long as
it’s kind of an ongoing presence.”
“We’re
hoping to build on this event,” Morris said.
Future ideas include a 5K Run for Recovery, with proceeds going to help
someone who is in recovery, as well as a healthy vendor fair to spread the word
about resources in the community.
Although
the current commitment is for a year, “The idea is that it will continue to sustain
itself, and become an ongoing event,” Morris said. “If there’s a little bit of
presence every month, in as many churches as possible, growing and growing, we
could really affect a lot of people,” she said.
