Hi, CV!

We are having a fun, family-friendly fundraiser on Saturday at Flappers Comedy Club in Burbank, 102 E. Magnolia.  Each ticket is $30 – and in addition you have to purchase two items (drinks, food) during the show – and you can buy the tickets online at flapperscomedy.com/Calendar/October 24. Free parking across the street in either the Ashley Furniture or the Sears lots. Please come out and laugh with us!

Come to our free, interactive Red Ribbon program at Toll Middle School, 700 Glenwood Road on Thursday, Oct. 29 from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Our partners for this event are GUSD, Council PTA, Glendale Police, Phoenix House and Didi Hirsch Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention Services!

Didi Hirsch AOD, headed by Annie Ortega, has been a staple in our community bringing free programs about prevention, resiliency and communication strategies. Many thanks to Annie and her staff, Jacqueline Nazarian and Lusine Khachikyan, for being terrific partners to CV Alliance. I’m going to miss them when they close their doors at the end of the month. If you would like to say thanks, email Annie at aortega@didihirsch.org. Better still, come to the event and give her a big hug.

Five years ago, our grant addressed heroin problems in CV. We may still have heroin problems among our youth, but our available data doesn’t support this claim.  Maybe our kids go directly to rehab and avoid police and hospital records. But we do have data pointing to ready access to alcohol in homes and social settings, an increasing belief marijuana isn’t harmful because it’s legal, and higher than the national average use of e-cigarettes, vaping and hookah, 17% vs. 10%. We know these are important issues, but they don’t rival the heroin epidemic sweeping our nation. Even when we did document heroin use, it didn’t match the statistics communities see today. As such, our Drug Free Communities grant was not renewed.

That’s why we’re holding fundraisers, and are investigating innovative ways to keep our doors open. Although this is a bummer, it’s liberating to see what we can do.  CV, how deep is your love?

  Suzy JACOBS