Last week residents of the Kenai Peninsula embraced an in-depth look at the local heroin problem and this week the follow-up town hall meeting will focus on seeking solutions.
Ruben Foster, Supervisor for Adult Probation and Parole in Kenai spoke to attendees last Thursday night.
Foster: “The turnout tonight was amazing. I think it’s amazing. I think it clearly says that the community’s ready to take a hold of the problem. As I mentioned tonight, it’s not a [Department of] Corrections problem, it never has been. We’re there as a support mechanism to help people move to the right path, but it’s always been a community problem, it always will be. Tonight we saw the community stand up and say, ‘Yeah, we agree with that and we’ll address it.'”
Shari Conner is the Prevention Coordinator with Change 4 the Kenai says the upcoming meeting will delve deeper into the problem, with guests from the Alaska AIDS Assistance Association, or Four A’s.
Conner: “We will have some prevention strategies, we will talk about harm reduction and what it looks like for us, what our capacity is for our community in treating our heroin problem. We’ll have the Four A’s here from Anchorage, they’ll talk about their harm reduction process and their programs in Anchorage, what that looks like for needle exchange and for a reduction of Hepatitis C in our community.”
The town hall meeting will start at 5:30 pm on Thursday, May 26, at the Kenai Challenger Learning Center.
