Mayor Sarno, HHS Commissioner Caulton-Harris and City Officials Continue Discussions on the Dangers of Fentanyl with an Awareness Campaign
City of Springfield, Massachusetts - Office of Communications
07/20/2023 | City News
Mayor Domenic J. Sarno, Health and Human Services (HHS) Commissioner Helen Caulton-Harris, Parks, Buildings and Recreation Management (PBRM) Director Patrick Sullivan, Sgt. Jamie Bruno, and Michelle Balch from the Springfield Public Schools met with a group of community stakeholders as part of the Sarno Administrations continued efforts to increase awareness on the dangers of Fentanyl. Mayor Sarno and city officials met with Lisa Deane, Founder of demandZero, a nonprofit organization committed to supplying law enforcement with resources to fight drug trafficking, and Paula Young, Director of Achieve Greatness, a nonprofit dedicated to raising awareness of the dangers of fentanyl – both of whom lost their sons to Fentanyl poisoning. They have stepped forward and created these two organizations to help raise awareness so that another family doesn’t have to suffer losing a loved one to this poison. Brian O’Keefe, Community Outreach Specialist from the DEA, New England Division was also on hand.
Mayor Sarno states, “As my administration continues our joint collaborative efforts to increase awareness on the dangers of fentanyl, especially to our youth, working together with key community stakeholders and partners is paramount to saving lives. We had a very good and productive meetings and working with HHS Commissioner Helen Caulton-Harris and Springfield Public Schools Superintendent Daniel Warwick, I am looking forward to enhancing our local efforts and supporting a fentanyl awareness campaign for our public schools. It is our hope that this proactive and preventative outreach to our students and youth will increase awareness of the dangers of this drug so that we can save lives and not have another family suffer from losing a loved one from this poison – which as they stated in their program, ‘turning tragedy into purpose’.”
