In the last 10 weeks, STEPS Ministries has distributed over one third of a million digital ads to every household with kids in Walker County, Alabama. Why did we do that?
Because of Ben, Debbie, Dylan, Gary, Molly, Chad, Larry, Crystal, Asa, Chris, Sam, Tanya, Larry, Ashley, Alex, Lance, Shane, Tia, Tommy, Hayden, Brenda, and Jacob. Those are just some of the overdose victims in Walker County, and the list goes on.
This week, each of them was immortalized on the “Overdose Awareness Day Memorial Wall” in the picture above. Each represented by a flickering candle, and each remembered in the hearts and prayers of those gathered for the Walk I attended in Jasper.
It’s enough to break your heart. Because, to some degree, it’s happening in every town. And substance abuse, mental health issues, or other related problems are affecting almost every family.
But in some ways, Walker County is in better shape than many other communities. There are many great people and organizations there actively engaged in the fight against substance abuse. They understand the depth of the problem, and they are doing something about it. My fear for many counties, towns, families, and individuals is: “They don’t know what they don’t know.”
The substance abuse problem with teenagers in the U.S. has become an epidemic.
75% of highschoolers try or use addictive substances, and 40% abuse them.
9 of 10 people with addictions start before age 18, and only 10% of those struggling get help.
The leading cause of death for people below age 18 is vehicle accidents, and most involve impaired driving.
Almost one half of families in our country today deal with substance abuse.
COVID accelerated the problem, and overdose deaths in 2020 were the highest number ever recorded.
What STEPS has done in the last two months
In the first half of 2022, we completed preparations to implement our STEPS Proactive Parenting program in Walker County to help parents prevent teenage substance abuse. We began execution in late June, so we have run the program for about 2 months, and it will continue for the rest of this year. Our plans are to build on that momentum in 2023 and beyond.
We delivered targeted digital ads to the households of families with kids in Walker County to plant “seeds of hope and awareness” and offer additional parenting resources.
- We delivered 357,225 impressions of our digital ads. Each impression provides a positive message to parents and offers the opportunity to access useful parenting training.
- We started Google ads beginning on August 15 to reach parents searching for answers to problems we can help them with.
- We improved how Walker County parents access PACES for Parents. You can see that landing page by clicking here.
We also began reaching out to organizations in Walker County to encourage collaboration.
- We participated in the Overdose Awareness Walk, worked with members of The Healing Network and the Walker Area Community Foundation, and met with or talked to other organizations and people doing related work in the area.
- We have contacted 45 churches through email and follow-up phone calls.
- Based on feedback, we developed seminar/webinar content designed specifically for churches.
- We are inviting leaders from churches in Walker County to a “Lunch and Learn” session on September 13, and you can see a short video invitation by clicking here.
We will continue these and other activities through the rest of 2022 and have hopes and plans to keep running the STEPS Proactive Parenting program in Walker County into 2023 and beyond.
Something Everyone Needs to Know
While in Walker County recently, I talked to a police officer who described the 57 grams of fentanyl they seized that day. Someone else told me of the several fentanyl overdose deaths in their small town in the previous week. I heard stories about a son, daughter, spouse, or friend who had died from overdose, and more stories about what generational addiction does to a community.
STEPS is focusing a lot on Walker County right now, but the epidemic of widespread substance abuse is happening across the country. And what in recent years had been an opiod epidemic has become an even more lethal pandemic centered around one deadly drug: fentanyl. If you don’t know about fentanyl, you and every parent or teenager you know need to.
Fentanyl is killing thousands of people and first-time users of “innocent” drugs.
Fentanyl is the leading cause of death for people in the U.S. between ages 18 and 45. It kills more people than cancer, COVID, gun violence, or motor vehicle accidents.
It is a synthetic opiod drug in the same family as heroin and the pain pills you get from your doctor or dentist. The same pills your teenager is prescribed that give them the opportunity to learn first-hand how opiods make them feel the way they want to feel.
Fentanyl is deadly in very small quantities, and the amount that fits on the tip of a pencil can kill you. The fatal dose is about 2 milligrams, which means the 57 grams seized this week in Walker County was enough to kill over 28,000 people.
It is commonly laced into many drugs, including marijuana or illegal pills people take to feel better, for anxiety, or even to do better on tests. One temptation, one bit of peer pressure, or one inadvertent dose can be deadly.
Before fentanyl, many parents naïve or prideful enough to believe substance abuse couldn’t happen in their family were being shocked when their son or daughter got arrested, had an accident, or became addicted. These days, too many parents are getting a phone call from the police telling them their child has died of accidental overdose.
What STEPS has done in the last two months
STEPS expanded our social media focus overall and began targeting Walker Area parents:
- STEPS social posts were reaching on average about 24,000 people per month.
- We created over 60 social media posts that are informative and inspirational.
- We launched Pinterest as a channel in addition to Facebook and Instagram.
- We began boosting Facebook posts targeted at Walker County parents and delivered more than 18,000 impressions.
- We expanded our reach with Reels (short videos) on Facebook and Instagram. See an example of a Reel by clicking here.
- We are following 14 churches on their Instagram pages and will continue ramping up the Instagram pages and Facebook groups we collaborate with in Walker County.
We published a series of blog articles about “Hard Questions Parents Ask:”
- Should You Be Worried About Your Teenager’s Safety?
- Do You Know What is Really Going On With Your Kids?
- What Do You Do When You Can’t Talk to Your Teenagers?
- How Do You Help Your Kids When They’re Struggling?
- What if Nothing is Working with Your Teenager?
- 10 Quick Ways to Help Your Teenagers
We will use this series of articles in many ways such as in easy-to-use flyers we distribute, social media posts we can boost to reach thousands, and in an eBook and workbook on “Dealing with a Crisis with Your Teenager.”
What Life is Like for Many Teenagers
The problems STEPS is seeking to serve by helping parents are bigger than substance abuse, because the root causes involved in preventing addiction include mental health and related issues that harm people’s well-being.
The issues teenagers struggle with are much broader than only substance abuse.
One half of adolescents has had a mental health disorder at some point in their lives.
Two thirds of college-age students experience “overwhelming anxiety,” and anxiety disorders are 70% higher for teens than adults.
Almost every teenager has issues or unmet needs they struggle with at times.
1 in 11 young people attempt suicide, and 19% consider it.
Though our primary focus right now is on Proactive Parenting, especially in Walker County, we continue to help many other people prevent addiction, improve their lives, and grow closer to God in other ways as well.
What STEPS has done in the last two months
- We are working with several organizations about how to implement Proactive Parenting in collaboration with them including a town’s Board of Education, church, and company.
- We created new material on dealing with anxiety and gave a keynote presentation on “How to Live Life Better in an Anxious World.” We will reuse that presentation (contact me to speak at your organization) and repurpose that content on anxiety in a number of ways as we move forward. You can see a video of that presentation by clicking here.
- We published 3 other blog articles during July and August:
- Steve coached 7 individuals one-on-one on situations they and their family were facing.
- We created more content in the form of video Reels, new parenting material, and content for grandparents.
- We implemented processes to improve platform security and installed software for team project management and collaboration.
- We continued to grow our skills and resources by meeting with other potential partners and taking part in training in several areas.
- Steve continued to hold other one-on-one meetings related to serving other organizations, collaboration opportunities, updating the STEPS Boards, and seeking donations as part of our fundraising efforts.
- We updated the content we use for grant applications, submitted five new grants, and met with several other foundations.
As always, there’s a lot going on at STEPS. That’s because there are a lot of hurting people out there, and we want to do all we can to help them find help, healing and hope.
Thank you for your encouragement, prayers, and financial support of our ministry.
Steve Ward
Executive Director, STEPS Ministries
