RUTLAND, Vt. (AP) - A Vermont city plans to expand and adapt a program that sought to address the opioid crisis and other social problems.
In 2012, Rutland created Project Vision, which brought together churches, police, social workers, substance abuse experts, businesses and others to fight the drug problem as well as rising crime.
The project organizers are now planning to update their objectives and goals, including expanding from a focus on the Northwest neighborhood, hardest hit by the opioid epidemic, to the whole city, the Rutland Herald reports.
Project Vision founder Joe Kraus said he thinks the key to maintaining the project is to take an honest look at what has been accomplished and what remains to be done.
“I underline the word ‘honest’ because while we have a lot of successes, there are areas where we have not been successful and we need to be honest about that so we can deal with our challenges and rise to the occasion,” Kraus said.
Kraus said that he was “amazed” that after seven years, the organization’s monthly meetings still fill a room.
Project Vision is part of the series of efforts that has includes police actions, drug treatment programs, social services, businesses and - perhaps most of all - community determination to help and restore a sense of hope to a city that was ravaged by the opioid epidemic sweeping America. In the middle years of the last decade Rutland drew national attention for its heroin problem.
The group is planning to survey everyone on the organization’s email list looking for strengths and weaknesses. The ideas generated by those survey results will be discussed at the organization’s meetings in the coming months.
“The success of this turns completely on all of us,” Kraus said. “Don’t look to somebody else to make this successful. You have to look inward.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.