Recovery committee targets teen drug use
WAYNESBURG – Greene County’s Community Recovery Committee is starting a new initiative with the hopes of providing drug and alcohol free activities to area teens.
Robert Terry of Waynesburg-based Steps Inside said initiative, called the Community Activities Network, or CAN, will bring together teens from across the county to participate in sporting events and other activities, that it will give them an alternative to drugs or alcohol.
Committee member Bonnie Fisher said the program is about prevention to keep teens from turning to drugs as a means of entertainment.
“All of it got started because there were so many people losing their children to heroin,” she said. “It can happen to anyone, but it’s less likely to happen if kids are busy doing stuff, like sports or music or art classes or something like that.”
Terry said the committee, which met Monday afternoon, will spend three months gathering information and collecting ideas for different activities to include in the program, and probably won’t make any formal proposals until September.
“All of these individual pieces are coming together,” he said. “We have about six mothers who lost children to heroin who are involved in this now.”
Some of the activities could include sporting events at the new EQT Recreation Center, which is to be completed by the end of 2016 at EverGreene Technology Park, flying lessons from the Young Eagles and church youth group activities.
Terry said he wants to a volunteer ride-sharing transportation program to give teens a lift to the activities and have a mobile app for teens to check schedules, tickets and transportation options for different events. He said the drivers could mentor the teens while driving them to different activities.
Terry said he hopes Community Foundation of Greene County will act as the umbrella organization for CAN, in order to secure a five-year grant to fund the program.
Bettie Stammerjohn, executive director of Community Foundation, said the committee would need to file a formal application and the Foundation’s board of directors would need to approve it.
Eventually, Terry said he hopes to see CAN established as a nonprofit.