For more than a year, Homer’s opioid task force has been trying to bring more services to town aimed at those struggling with addiction. The group is largely driven by local agencies that are constrained by regulations and limited funding, which has hampered some initiatives.
That’s led the task force to a new plan, get residents involved directly through community dialogue.
On a recent Saturday, about 30 people gathered in the Christian Community Church in Homer for a conversation hosted by Homer’s opioid task force.
Donna Aderhold is a taskforce member and she’s leading this event, known as a community café.
“Somebody called me a navigator. I thought, I like that, I’m kind of navigating,” Aderhold said through the church’s PA system. “This is going to be your meeting, your time to have the conversations you need to have in the community to create this healthy and resilient place that we want to be.”
The group has hosted similar events with set presentations and discussions. But today, the idea is bringing people together who are concerned about substance abuse for loosely structured discussions on topics and problems that are important to them.
Erin is in recovery. She doesn’t want us to use her last name because she’s new to town. The first discussion group Erin joins was about how to connect with new people through sober activities.
“I’m new and I want to connect. One of the easy, open places I could go any time would be the bar, and I’m finding that’s not like the most healthy thing for me to do, but what else are my options?” she told the six others in the conversation.
Another woman in the group, Stacy Petterson, is also in recovery, and struggles with the same problem.
“I stay by myself with my husband who’s in recovery. We both are making it. We’re two years, but it’s hard, especially when you have two addicts,” she explained. “It’s such a broad thing, but people, they do need connections.”
A member of the opioid task force sits down with the group and guides the discussion toward finding a solution.
Erin suggests getting more people to download a smartphone application she used in the Lower 48 that allows people to post activities open for others to join.
“But it doesn’t sound like it’s super popular here, but maybe a Facebook page or going on someone else’s page would be – It’s all about starting with a catalyst, like one person being inclusive,” she said.
That’s the entire idea of this event, using conversation and connection as a catalyst for community members to take start filling in needs surrounding addiction on the southern Kenai Peninsula.
Other ideas from the day’s event are more concrete, like a crisis hotline for drug users and their families.
High school junior Elizabeth Prescott wants to use her experience as a peer educator to start a support group specifically for teens.
“I’m so dedicated to start doing that so people aren’t alone through this,” she said. “I know I would be dedicated to leave this room and start this right now, and I feel like a lot of people here are so empowered to do the same thing.”
At the end of the day, participants gather to say what they’re going to do when they walk out the door.
“But just as I ask people to take risks, I need to start talking to people who make policies and make decisions that impact people I’m rooting for,” Ingrid Harold said, a local school counselor.
The task force plans to reach out to many of the participants to help them follow through on initiatives both big and small.
