A Grassroots Effort to End the Stigma of Addiction

The message on the sign is simple yet powerful: #2069. That’s the number of Massachusetts deaths in 2016 attributed to opioid addiction.
Wrentham’s Trinity Episcopal Church is behind the signs, which are popping up in communities all over the state. After a parish family lost a child to a drug overdose, the church’s outreach ministry decided to act.
Deacon Ron Tibbetts said the group learned that in 2016, 55,000 deaths in the U.S. were substance-abuse related, and that the Center for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that opioids could kill close to 650,000 people in the U.S. in the next decade.
“We began to understand that the crisis is bigger than we thought,” said Tibbetts. “A generation of young men and women are dying, which is the loss of human potential.”
The group decided to place a simple sign in front of the church, in the hope of sparking conversation about the epidemic. The custom sign, however, could only be ordered in multiples of twenty-five. Parish members began taking the extra ones and erecting them in their own front yards.
The effort, said Tibbetts, snowballed. Soon requests were coming in from other communities, and the group began to partner with the SAFE Coalition to acquire and distribute more signs. Eight police departments in the area have also committed to the signs in front of their stations.
Tibbetts has delivered many of the signs himself, and has met people directly impacted by the epidemic. The signs are an acknowledgment of the crisis, and people are grateful.
“These folks live in the shadows,” he observed. “This effort is helping to raise the cloud of the stigma of addiction. It actually empowers people to have a voice.”
On October 28 at 10 a.m., the Trinity Episcopal Church is planning a rally on Wrentham’s town common in support of families struggling with addiction. The rally will be called “No Shame.”
“We are saying we care, we love you, we are here for you,” stressed Tibbetts. “There is no shame if you are or a family member is struggling. The shame lies in the unawareness of the global community, the state-wide community.”
Tibbetts said his church has also partnered with the Trinity Episcopal Church in Bridgewater to help spread awareness with the signs, and hopes other faith communities, businesses, and individuals will join them.
The church is asking for a $12 donation per sign. Contact Tibbetts at rontibbetts@yahoo.com to acquire a sign, or for more information about the initiative.
For more information about the SAFE Coalition, visit www.safecoalitionma.com.