14 Jun 2023 ‘You Are Not Alone’ launch set for tonight

Posted at 4:44 PMh in News by

LITTLE ROCK — Hope Movement Coalition will hold its inaugural You Are Not Alone event this evening.

The launch event will take place at the Ron Robinson Theater at 100 River Market Avenue in Little Rock, Arkansas on June 15 beginning at 6:30 p.m. and is co-hosted by the Arkansas Opioid Recovery Partnership. 

The Hope Movement Coalition was created to lift up and offer support to families that have experienced the loss of their child or loved one due to Substance Use Disorder or Fentanyl Poisoning.

The event will spotlight the stories of three parents who have lost children to fentanyl poisoning. 

“We’ve been building our You Are Not Alone initiative for almost 8 months now and the time has finally arrived to introduce it to our state,” said Staci James, Executive Director of Hope Movement Coalition. “In January, Hope Movement Coalition received funding from the Arkansas Opioid Recovery Partnership to create a program specifically for the families of Arkansas that have suffered the excruciating loss of a loved one to drug-related deaths. These families will now have the support and resources they desperately need and deserve.”

According to statistics provided by the National Institute of Health, overall, drug overdose deaths rose from 2019 to 2021 with more than 106,000 drug overdose deaths reported in 2021. Deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone (primarily fentanyl) continued to rise with 70,601 overdose deaths reported in 2021. 

The mission of the Arkansas Opioid Recovery Partnership is to evaluate proposals, make recommendations, and empower evidence-based programs and strategies to abate the Arkansas opioid epidemic, in a manner consistent with approved purposes as defined in the Arkansas Opioids MOU, settlement agreements, and court orders approving settlements and bankruptcies.

“Hope Movement is the waive of the future in Arkansas to abate the Opidemic,” said Kirk Lane, Executive Director of the Arkansas Opioid Recovery Partnership. “Come be a part of the solution.”