This August, join the Manchester community at the International Overdose Awareness Week, a community event dedicated to celebrating recovery and remembering lives lost to drug overdose.

The International Overdose Awareness Week event will be held on Thursday, August 29th from 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM at Center Memorial Park (Rain Location: Mary Cheney Library, 586 Main Street). The event will include a Luminary Walk, guest speakers, an open-mic, resource tables, children’s activities, food trucks and more. 

This year’s event, coordinated by the Change Collaborative of Manchester, is supported by the Department of Leisure, Family and Recreation, the Manchester H.O.P.E. Initiative and the Pathfinders Club. As the spearheading organization, the Change Collaborative of Manchester works “toward building a vibrant, safe, and healthy community for our youth through substance use prevention.” Alongside community partners, the Collaborative utilizes a variety of resources to target substance misuse and other related issues in Manchester’s youth.

A primary component of the International Overdose Awareness Week event is the Luminary Walk, a vigil pathway designed to honor those who have passed away from or have survived an overdose &  found recovery. To submit a Luminary of your own, please complete the Luminary Submission form by clicking here.

For Samantha Bell, Prevention Program Coordinator for the Town of Manchester’s Youth Service Bureau and the chairperson for the Change Collaborative, this event provides not only the opportunity to honor those who’ve lost their life due to drug overdose, but to also celebrate those in recovery and the support channels that aid alongside this lifelong journey.

“When it comes to drug use, many are often so afraid of saying the wrong thing that they don’t say anything at all,” Bell said. “We want to challenge the stigma that [drug users] face and focus instead of prevention, remembrance and support.”

This focus on support and prevention is seen not just at the local level, but at the federal level as well. The Biden administration has committed millions of dollars to strengthen national prevention and harm reduction measures, helping to not only support those struggling with drug use, but to better educate our communities on drug use and provide them with the necessary toolkit to challenge stigma.

“President Biden declared August 27 through September 2 as Overdose Awareness Week. During this week of recognition, the Biden-Harris Administration reaffirms our commitment to beating this epidemic – in memory of those we have lost and to protect the lives we can still save,” accordinging to the readout of a September 1, 2023, White House meeting with families on International Overdose Awareness Day.

Few states have been as disproportionately impacted by the opioid epidemic as Connecticut. In Connecticut, over 8 percent of high school students reported taking prescription pain medications differently than prescribed, just one of the many factors that have led to over 1,450 unintentional drug overdoses in Connecticut in 2022 alone. 

“In Connecticut, residents are more likely to die from unintentional drug overdose than a motor vehicle accident,” Connecticut’s Department of Public Health wrote. “The majority of these deaths are linked to overdose of illicit opioids. According to the CDC, the 2022 Connecticut age-adjusted rate for unintentional drug-induced mortality was 38.3 per 100,000 population compared to the 2022 national rate of 30.1.”

In the face of such adversity, community organizations such as the Change Collaborative have further sought progressive action. Late last year, for example, the Change Collaborative joined the Governor’s Prevention Partnership’s “Prevention Starts With You” initiative, a campaign that addressed substance misuse through prevention and saw the distribution of 50,000 conversation starters and drug inactivation and disposal pouches. Initiatives such as this reaffirm the Change Collaborative’s dedication to tackling systemic drug misuse holistically.

As the Manchester community bands together in commemoration of International Overdose Awareness Week, we hope you will join in remembrance of those we’ve lost to drug overdose, uplift those in recovery, and celebrate those individuals and organizations who work tirelessly to create a more vibrant, safer community for all.