La Porte Drug Free Partnership's first-ever executive director discusses goals
As of March, the La Porte County Drug Free Partnership has its first-ever executive director. He spoke exclusively with ABC 57’s Jess Arnold to discuss his goals for combating the drug epidemic.
The new executive director plans to focus on partnerships, and he thinks the new facility where his office will be is the perfect launch pad.
He gave ABC 57 the exclusive tour.
“Okay, welcome to the STAR Center. STAR is an acronym. It stands for shared technology and resources—so we’re going to have the latest technologies. We’re going to have the latest resources, and we’re going to have the most contemporary programs in La Porte County, and hopefully in our opinion, in the state of Indiana,” said Executive Director, Jim Musial.
This STAR center is a manifestation of Musial’s main goal as the La Porte County Drug Free Partnership’s first-ever executive director.
“We’re going to be using every arsenal piece we have to attack this foe and destroy it quickly,” he said.
The foe is drugs, and Jim’s team is currently gearing up to attack it with an arsenal of organizations and resources all in one place, like Unity, United Way, and Healthy Communities.
“When a client comes in, you’re going to have these things at your disposal. You can quickly identify that the best thing for this particular client is not to make your particular program work for them, but to make the right thing work for them through initiatives of collaborations,” he said.
To combat the drug epidemic, the partnership uses a tripod approach: prevention, treatment, and law enforcement.
“Getting them sober is just the tip of the iceberg. Getting them right and helping them sort through what their life has become because of it is a critical piece, and boy there are a lot of good organizations in town with programs available that I would like to bring together as part of this cooperative to work with the people we’re serving to make it not just let’s get them sober, but let’s get them sober and right and healthy and well-adjusted,” said Musial.
He says if they can save one life, they’ve done their job.
“Major social crises and issues will never go away. They come and go in degrees, and our job is to make it the best possible options for the people that want to get the help—I mean, when I was working with the homeless, it was changing lives. In this instance, it’s going to be saving lives, resurrecting lives,” said Musial.
Check out the partnership’s upcoming events here.