Beginning on October 9th, CAN (the Community Advancement Network in Austin) will host a series of Community Dialogues focused on the issue of how to address the Opioid crisis. Drug abuse in the Unites States has taken a sharp and lethal turn with the rise of Opioids – legal pain killers, such as oxycodone and fentanyl, and illegal ones, like heroin. According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than 64,000 Americans were killed by drug overdoses in 2016, and at least 2/3 of those deaths were caused by Opioids. In 2015 & 2016, there were 299 deaths in the City of Austin that were attributed to drug overdose and 191 of these deaths were Opioid related.
For these community conversations, CAN will use the Deliberative Dialogue Model developed by the Kettering Foundation and promoted/supported by the National Issues Forum. The dialogue process helps participants understand a variety of perspectives relating to this complex issue, examine the benefits and consequences of possible solutions, and identify shared ideas about what we should do to address this issue. The details for the first two community dialogues are included below. Use the registration links to sign-up.
October 9th – University Presbyterian Church
2203 San Antonio St,
October 15th – Travis County Administrative Offices Located
700 Lavaca St
October 23rd – Metz Elementary School Cafeteria
84 Robert T. Martinez Jr. St.
The Deliberative Dialogue process includes a trained facilitator at each table. If you would like to serve as a facilitator for one or more dialogues, see training details below:
Facilitator Training for the Community Dialogues on the Opioids Crisis
Saturday, September 29th, 9:00 am – Noon
Rosewood/Zaragosa Neighborhood Center – 2800 Webberville Road
