Long Island clergy and schools are working together to fight the opioid crisis.
The Long Island Covenant to End the Opioid Epidemic is a multi-faith coalition that tries to provide support to victims of substance abuse.
Joe Morris of Long Island Congregations, Associations, and Neighborhoods is organizing an event called Action Against Opioids.
“The clergy are tired of just doing funerals for people who die of opioid overdoses. And they’ve come together around the idea that we need to do more, we need to intervene earlier, we need to do much more around prevention. We can’t just react one overdose at a time.”
School districts have worked with the clergy group to draft policies to prevent substance abuse, including making Narcan available in schools.
In 2016, 493 people died of drug overdoses on Long Island.