This fentanyl Town Hall is a terrific example of a person with a passion to help others being able to make a difference for an entire community.
On Thursday November 17, 2023 the OC Sheriff’s Department held a Fentanyl Town Hall in Rossmoor for the western OC communities. The event was the vision of Kimmie Martin who reached out to OCSD Captain AJ Patella at one of the monthly CSD board meetings. Captain Patella connected Kimmie with Sargent Brian Gunsolley and the rest is history. Within about 6 weeks, the event was scheduled and here’s the replay of the event.
We want to thank the Rossmoor CSD for providing the Rush Park Auditorium and streaming the event so the dangers of synthetic fentanyl can be shared with all of our friends and neighbors – any time they are able to watch….
One Response
Thank you all for providing this presentation, training and resource. Please follow up as I am sure other community members who were not able to attend, would benefit from the training. Thank you for the overview, sharing county statistics and of course appreciation for those with lived-experience for their transparency and willingness to be vulnerable. I would like to facilitate the sharing of youth perspectives, in the future, who have found an opportunity to be brave and take advantage of a program here in our own community that offers youth 15 1/2-18 to step away from the digital, cellphone, social media frenzy that often traps them. Because of substance use many find themselves behind in credits, isolated from family and often it may be a result of those adverse childhood experiences (ACE’s) talked about in this very presentation. I would be open to sharing a resource where a youth could choose to take a different path with many supports and positive experiences available.
Sunburst Youth Academy is a free 5 1/2 months residential program and 12 months post-residential support. It partners with an amazing WASC accredited public high school. A youth can earn 65 credits and is in an environment where everyone is focused on building community and returning to community more resilient and linked to a strong supportive network. Students return to their district school reengaged to learn because they are more self-reliant and goal oriented. As a juvenile justice commissioner I can assure you this fentanyl crisis hits across socio-economics, age, background. The journey a youth may take from missing and disengaging from school to penetrating the juvenile justice system, either as a ward or dependent, is fraught with pain, fear, isolation, exploitation and worse…as a community we need to talk and act without shame and with compassion for one another. When we hear that the biggest risk factor for the our Orange County youth to die is the addiction to fentanyl it’s a wake up call.
I was moved by the passion and compassion of the organizers, speakers and our Deputy Sheriff’s informative message delivered with understanding of the challenges of adolescence and empathy for those who are suffering; the individual, the family, and the community at large. I would like to see the conversation that was started in this forum continue. Again, thank you. Peace be with you.