A Drug Awareness Event for parents, grandparents and guardians will be held at the Montgomery County Courthouse on July, 19 beginning at 6 p.m. This event is for adults only.
According to local organizers, Sharon Kent and Melissa Acy, the event promotes drug awareness in the home and community and includes a special mock teen bedroom. NARCAN training and distribution to families will be available to help stop Opioid overdoses.
Speakers will begin at 7 p.m. inside the Montgomery County Courtroom. There will be speakers from different walks of life who will share stories of addiction and recovery, and a parent will share her tragic story of the loss of her college-age son to overdose.
Director John Dowdy of the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics will speak about the drug epidemic and what we can do to help combat it. Elizabeth Fike, communications director of an adolescent treatment center will speak about the damage that drug use in adolescence does to the brain.
After the speakers, there will be an Expert Panel question and answer session with written questions taken from the audience. Pastor Mark Williamson of Winona Baptist Church will moderate the session. The expert panel will include Youth Court Judge and Family Master Tarik Johnson; Licensed Master Social Worker Ann Rodio from the MSDMH Bureau of Alcohol & Drug Services; Angela Mallette, Outreach Coordinator for Stand Up Mississippi; John Dowdy, Director of the MBN; Licensed Social Worker Deanna Woods; and Elizabeth Fike, Communications Director for an adolescent treatment center.
Groups and drug rehabilitation facilities, such as Stand UP MS, Narcotics Anonymous, NAR-ANON Family Group, Mississippi Department of Mental Health, Life Help, Stone Water Recovery, Addiction Centers of America, Celebrate Recovery, Families First, the Winona Police Department, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Department, Someone’s Child, Wings of Hope, One-Eighty Program, will have tables set up with literature and staff on hand to answer questions.
Educating parents on what to look for is a very important element in combating drug addiction, and a mock bedroom has been created to help parents identify items that could point to possible drug use. The first of its kind in North Mississippi open to the public, the purpose of The Hiding in Plain Sight Mock Room is to illustrate what can be hiding in plain sight inside a child’s room.
All parents, grandparents, guardians and adult community members are urged to attend this important, free community event.
