Why would faith leaders join?

The religious leaders of the community are an important tool that is often not utilized. They want to communicate effectively with their congregations and staying in touch with the latest issues is very important. The priests, rabbis, and other religious leaders in the Hunterdon County community want to create a strong, common message to help spread that awareness on the dangers of substance abuse and other community concerns.

Faith leaders have a respected and strong voice within their congregations and can make a huge difference in community outreach.  The power of the faith community is strong and religious leaders often have a substantial impact within their community.

Membership Information

All One Voice Faith leaders receive relevant topic information and decide the best delivery for each congregation.

Faith leaders are highly encouraged to participate in the following activities:

1.   Pray for the success of our One Voice initiatives.

2.   Disseminate information in a manner most appropriate for your congregation.  Suggested methods may be during sermons, guest speaker, service announcements, bulletin insert  or a combination of these suggested methods.  This is typically 1 – 2x a year.

3.   Provide information either in bulletins, emails, websites, etc. throughout month of awareness encouraging the congregation to participate in the discussion of the identified topic.

4.   Provide the following link to our website so your congregation can visit the One Voice website for additional information and resources. www.onevoicehc.com.

BEYOND FAITH LEADERS
ONE VOICE COALITION SECTOR INVOLVEMENT

· Youth – Peer to Peer outreach and training; scholarship opportunities, community service projects, community leadership opportunities

· Parents – Parent to Parent outreach and education, promote social hosting laws, take Safe Homes pledge to host alcohol/drug free gatherings.

· Businesses – partner with local restaurants, liquor stores to promote legal sale of alcohol, engage marketing firms to promote OV materials, solicit sponsorships for scholarships.

· Media – publish press releases, advertisements in local papers, social media outreach of all campaigns and work of coalition. 

· Schools – partner with coalition to conduct PRIDE student surveys, data collection, prevention education for students, interaction with clubs, work together on school policies on drug and alcohol.

· Youth-serving organizations – partner to protect our youth with campaigns aimed at prevention.

· Law enforcement – work with coalition on educating community about local conditions (crime, substance misuse); work with juvenile diversion program (LEAP), partner in Rx take back initiatives.

· Religious or fraternal organizations – raise awareness of community concerns through educational summits for faith leaders, participation in One Voice weekend – where all places of worship address the same concern on the same weekend.  Provide opportunities for prevention education through religious formation classes, parent groups, youth ministries.  

· Civic or volunteer groups – expand outreach through civic groups – engage community leaders in One Voice prevention initiatives. 

· Healthcare professionals – work with health care professionals to collect data, educate medical staff of trends in youth drug use and disseminate information to patients through medical providers on harms of alcohol and drug use for our youth. Work with Hospice on Rx safety – disposal. 

· State, local, or tribal governmental agencies with expertise in substance misuse – Engage local government leaders in youth substance misuse prevention; create open dialog for discussion of legislation affecting our youth. 

· Other organizations involved in reducing substance misuse (treatment providers) – Partner with treatment facilities to collect focus group data, identify trends and promote prevention education materials.