“COVID-19 has made a huge impact on our coalition and community,” said HOPE Coalition’s Prevention Coordinator Vera Gibson, “and unfortunately it has disrupted friends, families and community member’s lives. “Because of this, coalitions across the nation have been looking at new and creative ways to spread and share information with their community. It has become a challenge for many, because what was once acceptable is now frowned upon because of the rules of social distancing.”
“Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, our staff was thriving in the school setting and in the community,” said Gibson. “We were making strides in what we wanted to accomplish, a healthier drug-free community for both our youth and community members. This included providing alternative drug-free activities where our youth felt welcome and safe. Because those days are behind us until COVID-19 passes, we had to put our thinking caps on and be more creative on how we could share information that would still allow our youth and community members to feel safe and hopefully at ease with what’s taking place in our country.”
“The staff of the HOPE Coalition decided that a project they wanted to tackle was creating our own podcast,” said Gibson. “The increased wave of social media has now become the platform to share and let our community know that we are still here, even if it is behind the scenes. In honor of National Recovery Month, we decided to take on this challenge in the hope that our message would be accepted and shared on a digital platform.”
“Our Outreach Coordinator Missy Mongiovi took on the project, and on September 2nd she launched our new Podcast ‘Speaking of Hope…’ and uploaded our first podcast recording,” said Gibson. “We decided to use our first recording as an introduction to our HOPE Coalition staff. We shared who our coalition was and how community members can join us and become involved in the work we are doing in our community. You can access the first recording here.”
“The plan for our new podcast is to share tips and stories of hope within our community,” said Gibson. “Not only from coalition staff, but also from members of the community. During September for National Recovery Month, three members of our community volunteered to share their road to recovery from substance misuse. It is an exciting and promising new project for us, and we are very excited to be able to share this with our community.”
