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\u201cThe Rhode Island Regional Coalitions are comprised of seven regions covering the state,\u201d said Coalition Project Manager\u00a0Kathy Gardner<\/strong>. \u201cThe Coalitions represents parents, youth, law enforcement, schools, healthcare, businesses, government officials and community leaders. We assess the region\u2019s substance use challenges and work together to develop policies and programs using evidence-based practices.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEach town in our coverage area has its own community coalition,\u201d said Gardner. \u201cAll the coalitions are very active in working together and also addressing their own individual community culture and needs. Although the regional model is new, maybe only three to four years old, some of the community coalitions have been in existence for over 30 years.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDEA Drug Take Back Day would have been this month,\u201d said Gardner. \u201cWe were lucky enough to partner with CVS and are mailing out the envelopes for people to send their medications back. One of our local police departments did a great\/funny video to promote it and got over 3,000 views! Over 2,000 wellness packs also went out to the school lunch programs and food pantries to be distributed with meals for families.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf anything, I think we are all more connected during this challenging time,\u201d said Gardner. \u201cI\u2019m very thankful for the ability to have Zoom meetings. Each morning the coalition teams have a check in where we can all see each other\u2019s faces. We even have a Friday \u201ccrazy hat\u201d day to keep us motivated and laughing. We have increased the meeting of all the coalition coordinators from a monthly to a weekly meeting. Together, we\u2019re now working more as a team and coming up with ideas collectively.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOur work is always necessary, in good times and in a crisis,\u201d said Gardner. \u201cI think we are being more sensitive to ourselves and all we work with. The added responsibilities of working from home and then having your children by your side, or for a single person living alone, where work is their social outlet might be a couple of examples of added stresses that require an outlet.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTo other coalitions, I would advise you to\u00a0understand that your work is going to be different,\u201d said Gardner. \u201cOur current state of \u2018normal\u2019 is not the same now as it was a few months ago, and we should realize that it may not even go back to the same once this is over.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cThe Rhode Island Regional Coalitions are comprised of seven regions covering the state,\u201d said Coalition Project Manager\u00a0Kathy Gardner. \u201cThe Coalitions<\/p>","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":3213,"template":"","resource_type":[281,289],"drug_specific_issues":[],"action_to_do":[],"class_list":["post-17161","resource","type-resource","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","resource_type-coalitions-online","resource_type-covid-19"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n