As the Co-Chair of the MFA Faith-based Task Force, I organized the April
12th conference and worked with my Co-Chair, Pastor Larry Munguia. The conference,
held at Grace to the Nations, was open to the public, but as the Faith-based
Task Force, we particularly wanted to engage the faith-community in understanding
the needs of the children and to provide information to faith-community leaders
so that they could work with their members and congregants in addressing
the issues that Meth use creates.
The greatest benefit of the conference was the education provided by the presenters. People came away with a new respect for the issues involved and the extent of the problem. The presentation that seemed to have the greatest impact was made by Brianna Shore and Frankie Santa Cruz, two youth who lived with meth-addicted parents and gratefully had seen their parents recover and their respective families reunited. We were especially pleased that Honorable Joan Wagener of the Family Drug Court did a presentation and a workshop. Her involvement has opened an opportunity for the community to support the Family Drug Court.
Our other presenters were equally outstanding and the conference participants were enthusiastic about the information provided by these presenters: Dr. Dennis Embry of the Paxis Institute, Tucson Police Department’s Captain David Neri, Sgt. Marcos Moreno of the Arizona National Guard-Drug Demand Reduction, and Libby Wright of The Giving Tree, who brought a small choir of children, currently homeless because of Meth. Their singing was very touching.
The theater presentation by C.A.S. T., Clean And Sober Theater, comprised of teens recovering from addictions, encouraged discussion and particularly engaged the attention of Mark Evans, representing Attorney General Terry Goddard.
There were 175 attendees with many faith groups being represented. Javier Herrera compiled a great workbook for the conference on Meth, its dangers, some resources for addressing Meth problems, and ways to combat the Meth epidemic.
The workbook then became a companion to our circulating photo exhibit, “Meth Through the Eyes of a Child”. This exhibit is currently being circulated through 8 libraries in the Pima-County Library system. The library took an interest in the workbook and, after being evaluated by the Cataloguing Team of the library, was deemed worthy of being included in the library’s material. Each of the 8 locations now has two “Meth through the Eyes of a Child” workbooks available for their patrons.
At the Conference, we introduced the idea of Action Plans. Faith-based or community groups can apply for Mini-grants up to $300 to actually do something to help children caught in the Meth situation. Seven groups applied for the mini-grants. Their Action Plans range from providing information packets to youth to purchasing rocking chairs so that Meth babies can be cuddled by volunteers at group homes. We wanted to encourage attendees to focus on action and it seems to have worked.
Finally, the most important impact of the conference comes from the relationships that were formed at the Conference and in the process of organizing the conference.
Dozens of faith groups, and community groups as well as The Arizona Department of Economic Security, Child Protective Services, Aviva, the Meth Free Alliance, the Family Drug Court, various resource providers, the Gospel Rescue Mission, The Giving Tree, Grace to the Nations, the Salvation Army, the SOBER Project, Pima County, the City of Tucson, and many elected officials had the opportunity to interact and to react to some very disturbing information about the lives of children with Meth addicted parents.
This Conference created a unique environment for these diverse groups to convene and to express their caring and concern for children impacted by Meth.
For information on how to support the Meth Free Alliance, please contact Javier Herrera at (520) 388-4711 or at jherrera@copebhs.com. For more information on the Faith-based Task Force, contact Linda Leatherman, Pima County Faith-based Coordinator at (520) 243-6780 or at lleatherman@csd.pima.gov. The Meth Free Alliance web site is www.meth-free-alliance.org.
© 2008 Good News Tucson™
