About International Overdoes Awareness Day – August 31, 2018
International Overdose Awareness Day aims to raise awareness of overdose and reduce the stigma of a drug-related death.
It is also an opportunity to stimulate discussion about evidence-based overdose prevention and drug policy.
International Overdose Awareness Day acknowledges the grief felt by families and friends remembering those who have died or suffered permanent injury due to drug overdose.
International Overdose Awareness Day spreads the message about the tragedy of drug overdose death and that drug overdose is preventable.
The goals of International Overdose Awareness Day are:
- To provide an opportunity for people to publicly mourn loved ones in a safe environment, some for the first time without feeling guilt or shame.
- To include the greatest number of people in International Overdose Awareness Day events, and encourage non-denominational involvement.
- To give community members information about the issue of fatal and non-fatal overdose.
- To send a strong message to current and former people who use drugs that they are valued.
- To stimulate discussion about overdose prevention and drug policy.
- To provide basic information on the range of support services that are available.
- To prevent and reduce drug-related harm by supporting evidence-based policy and practice.
- To inform people around the world about the risk of overdose.
Updates
- County Commissioners provided approval to post easels with poster board on them on the courthouse lawn for community members to place their handprint
- Old Town Pub chose to take a back seat on their participation due to concerns of sending the wrong message by using a liquor establishment as our base
- Bank of the West agreed to allow us to put up flags in the lawn showing the number of lives affected nationally
- Confirming with Kali’s Boutique to make sure we can use the full lawn space (don’t anticipate it to be an issue)
- Secured interest from the paper as well as Steamboat Radio to cover the event pre and post; as soon as we have a confirmed location I’ll start working on the press materials
- In communication with the schools to secure interest and the possibility of allowing students to place a handprint on poster board signifying how they’ve been impacted by overdose
- More to come on that as we hear back
- Steamboat Police and Fire Departments have also said they would help support during the day and we are working with them to determine exactly what that looks like
- CMC has declined to light up the campus this year due to not enough turnaround time and ability to navigate what is needed to accomplish this
Volunteer Needs
- Signup.com – Susan Petersen is setting this up as soon as we have a confirmed location and times for the event
- Volunteer needs will include placing flags, securing supplies, set up, breakdown and staffing throughout the day (Courthouse lawn – hopefully, and within the schools, if needed)
- Promotion and social media posts
- Lindsey is creating the poster to announce events during the day
- Once the posters are complete we will need help posting them around town
- We are working on social media posts and ask that anyone and everyone share on their person/business feeds to help get the word out
- Please follow Grand Futures on Facebook to make sure you are seeing these posts and can re-post as appropriate
- Lindsey is drafting all media materials to share with the radio and paper
- Educational materials
- Maddison and Mara have been working together to create handouts to inform people about overdose and specific drugs (e.g., opioids, Naloxone, etc.)
Questions? Contact Lindsey Simbeye
Grand Futures Prevention Coalition | Executive Director
Phone: 970-819-7805 | Email: lindsey@grandfutures.
