An evening of guest speakers and displays from local agencies will be held later this month to help combat deadly drug poisonings in the community.
Save our Young Adults (SOYA) from Drug Abuse has scheduled its upcoming Family Matters event for April 16 at the Holiday Inn Express on Bay Street.
Unlike the sober vigils organized by SOYA, the Family Matters events are focused on solutions and offer supporting organizations a chance to discuss the issues and work toward solutions.
"There's going to be people that have lost ones, people that want to help and people that want to get educated," said SOYA founder Connie Raynor-Elliott.
She said her organization is moving away from referring to the problem as the opioid crisis and instead shifting the wording to drug poisoning.
In many cases, people who are dying from opioid use are actually not intending on using them, but are exposed to fatal levels when using a completely different substance, she said.
"I can't believe how many people we are losing. It's actually heartbreaking," said Raynor-Elliott.
Many street-level agencies like SOYA have pivoted to using the term drug poisonings while some others, particularly police agencies, continue to use overdose.
The term overdose may not be correct in many instances, because the person affected may have intended on taking a non-fatal dose of a substance, but because it was mixed unknowingly to them with an opioid like fentanyl, it resulted in a poisoning and, in some cases, death.
In previous SOYA Family Matters events, guest speakers would offer their lived experience with opioids. Raynor-Elliott said four guest speakers are lined up for this Family Matters event, including a young boy who lost his father to a fatal drug poisoning.
"He's such a cutie pie. He visits the Memorial Wall all the time and I don't know if he has completely wrapped his head around the whole thing because he's so young, but he's so brave," said Raynor-Elliott.
A woman who is currently in recovery will also share her lived experience during the event.
"She said, 'maybe this might help me,' and I said, 'whatever your comfort level is.' She's pretty excited," said Raynor-Elliott.
The event will run from 6 to 8 p.m., with pizza donated by O'Sullivan Funeral Home.
A door prize will also be available.