Long Island Community Foundation Awards $15,000 Grant to LICADD to Mobilize and Empower Families Impacted by Heroin/Opiate Crisis

October 14, 2010- The Long Island Community Foundation, a division of The New York Community Trust has awarded a $15,000 grant to The Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (LICADD) to support the ongoing development and growth of People United to Stop Heroin on Long Island (PUSH-LI). PUSH-LI started as a Facebook group with just a few members, and has now grown to more than 8,000 members, some of whom met for the first time this spring to kick-off a historic grassroots effort to strengthen Long Island’s addiction prevention, treatment, and recovery system. The group is facilitated by LICADD and led by parents who have lost their children, parents of addicted children and young people in recovery.

“In response to the escalating and devastating effects of substance abuse on our community’s youth, the Long Island Community Foundation is proud to partner with LICADD in support of this program that will engage and empower parents to become a strong and influential voice for the needs of children struggling with addiction,” said LICF Executive Director David M. Okorn. “This grant supports LICADD’s community based advocacy efforts aimed at improving substance abuse services for youth, increasing parental rights, and seeking reform of insurance regulations to ensure adequate and appropriate treatment options.”

With funding from LICF, LICADD will mobilize this group of new advocates, harness their energy and give them the skills, tools and structures necessary to better advocate and advance effective public policies that promote substance abuse treatment, prevention and recovery strategies that will improve the health and well-being of all of those affected by addiction on Long Island.

“LICADD has five decades worth of community organizing experience and there are hundreds of Long Island families who have experienced first-hand the devastation of addiction, said LICADD Executive Director Dr. Jeffrey Reynolds. “They’re fired up, ready to speak out and dedicated to making a difference.”