The coalition is in the process of establishing an independent Court Appointed Special Advocate program to train and recruit volunteers to help Greene County courts make informed decisions on abused and abandoned children who come before the courts for service and placement.
The coalition is working with Greene County courts and school superintendents to establish a volunteer truancy mediation program designed to reverse the effects of absenteeism by encouraging communication between parents and school personnel and address issues impacting school attendance.
One of the most rural counties in Pennsylvania, Greene has been hit just as hard as more populous areas throughout the state. It ranked sixth statewide in number of drug-related overdose deaths per 100,000 people with 14 in 2015 and ninth with 19 in 2016, according to a report by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Kari Diamond joined the coalition after her son’s father fatally overdosed in February 2017.
“I just wanted to do something,” Diamond said.
Coalition member Tom Schlosser notes, the opposite of ‘addiction’ is ‘community.’
“I think that’s what we’re trying to do,” Schlosser said.