Mentor Schools hosting town hall

Mentor Schools Superintendent Bill Porter has said he sees schools as an extension of the community.

And one of the biggest crises affecting the community today is the opioid epidemic. So, the school district’s Paradigm Center, 6465 Center St., is again hosting “A Crisis We Can’t Ignore: The Opiate Epidemic In Our Community,” a town hall meeting about the epidemic.

The event will take place at 7 p.m., April 17, and will feature different perspectives on the crisis, with representatives from the Lake County Alcohol, Drug Addiction, and Mental Health Services Board, Lake County General Health District, Lake County Jobs and Family Services, Crossroads, Lake-Geauga Recovery Centers, Lake Health and the Mentor police and fire departments.

Keynote speakers for the town hall are ADAMHS Board Executive Director Kim Fraser and Mentor High School football coach Steve Trivisonno, who will share his story about losing one of his former players and the devastation a family has endured due to addiction.

There will also be breakout sessions, where participants can choose the topic that most interests them. Those sessions include: treatment options, grief and loss, lessons of hope and recovery, warning signs for parents, and a youth session with Crossroads among others.

The district stated everyone is welcome to attend, including students at their parents’ discretion.

Mentor’s Paradigm Center hosted the town hall last year and Porter said the program was well-attended. The success of that program also helped Paradigm serve as the taping site for WCPN’s “Sound of Ideas” March 27 Community Conversation on the opioid epidemic. “While we were pleased with the response and the turnout, it also, I think, spoke volumes of the level of the issue,” Porter said about last year’s town hall during the “Sound of Ideas taping.”

Porter added a lot of people are interested in learning more to combat the epidemic. The April 17 town hall gives the community another chance to do that.

A look at the number of heroin and total opioid overdose deaths in Ohio from 199 through 2014.