Three Rivers Hosts Opioid Awareness Events

HEAT: Fighting the Opioid Epidemic, Wednesday, March 28, 12:00 p.m.
Confronting the Opioid Crisis in Our Community, Tuesday, April 3, 3:00 .pm.
Healing Candlelight Vigil, Tuesday, April 3, 4:30 p.m.
Prescription Drug Take Back Day, April 3, 3:00-5:00 p.m.
 
Norwich, CT – Norwich is seventh in the state for opioid overdose death rates in 2017 according to the Connecticut Chief Medical Examiner Office. In response to this epidemic, Three Rivers Community College is raising awareness of opioids through several events that are free and open to the public. All events are funded through a Connecticut Healthy Campus Initiative grant that was awarded to Three Rivers and Norwich Human Services to educate the community, students, faculty and staff on the growing opioid crisis in Southeastern Connecticut.
 
Wednesday, March 28
HEAT: Fighting the Opioid Epidemic
12:00-2:00 p.m., Room F-117
Assistant United States Attorney Robert Spector, Chief of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, will host a presentation explaining the epidemic and how to fight back. Chief Spector will present as part of the US Attorney’s Heroin Education Action Team (HEAT) whose mission is to educate communities on the opioid epidemic and reduce the numbers of Connecticut families and communities harmed by heroin/opioid abuse. The presentation will include statistics and an excerpt from the movie “Chasing the Dragon.” He will also be joined by a family member from Connecticut who has been impacted by opioid substance use disorder and will share their story to help others fight back against this dangerous epidemic.
 
Tuesday, April 3
Confronting the Opioid Crisis in Our Community
3:00-4:30 p.m., Room F-117
Three Rivers will host a panel discussion, “Confronting the Opioid Crisis in Our Community,” will focus on how the opioid epidemic affects families in the Norwich/New London area. The panel which includes Marco Fabretti and Laura Shaw who are in active recovery; Tammy de la Cruz, Community Speaks Out; Angela Rae Duhaime, Southeastern Regional Action Council; and Tiana Powell, Norwich Human Services. The discussion will be moderated by Victoria Jenkins, Three Rivers Coordinator of the Connecticut Healthy Campus Initiative grant. Pizza will be provided.
 
Healing Candlelight Vigil
4:30 pm, begins in Room F-117
A healing and awareness candlelight vigil will be held immediately after the panel discussion. Candles will be provided. 
 
Prescription Drug Take Back Day
3:00-5:00 pm, Room F-117
Safely dispose of your old medicine with no questions asked at Take Back Day in room F-117. A Norwich police officer will be available to take any over-the-counter medicine, prescription medicine or expired medicine.
 
For more information on the events, contact Victoria Jenkins at VJenkins@trcc.commnet.edu or at 860-215-9256. 

Three Rivers Community College is an accessible, affordable, and culturally diverse two-year college located in Norwich, Connecticut, with an off-campus instructional center at the Naval Submarine Base in Groton. Knowing that the educational goals of its students are as diverse as their backgrounds, Three Rivers provides a broad range of credit and non-credit liberal arts, sciences, nursing, engineering, career and technical courses.  The student population consists of more than 4,300 enrolled students each semester. To learn more about what Three Rivers has to offer, visit www.threerivers.edu.