Grades 1-5Heroin Prevention
The Robert Crown Center for Health Education (RCC) in partnership with the Reed Hruby Foundation and the Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy at Roosevelt University is developing one of the world’s first heroin education and prevention programs. The goal of the program is to stop the growing trend of heroin abuse across America.
RCC Contributes to Lake County Roundtable
The Robert Crown Center participated in a roundtable discussion on the rising use of heroin in Lake County and surrounding suburbs at the invitation of U.S. Representative Bob Dold of Kenilworth. CEO Kathleen Burke shared details about the RCC Heroin Prevention Project currently being developed at the Center. She presented research findings from the initial part of the project, conducted by Roosevelt University’s Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy. The research shows that heroin users are typically young, white suburban residents who have little knowledge about the drug when they first use it or of its effects after short term use. The study noted that users often substituted heroin after becoming addicted to pain medications or used it to “come down” after cocaine highs.
Burke noted that the research confirmed the theory that successful prevention and education efforts must be comprehensive and acknowledge the pain or dysfunction young people are trying to escape through drug use. The RCC Heroin Prevention project is grateful to the many professional and community volunteers contributing to the educational intervention design. This process is scheduled for completion in April of 2012.
See Lake County News- Sun and Daily Herald articles here
The Hruby family of Burr Ridge reached out to RCC after experiencing their own personal heroin tragedy. Reed Hruby, grandson of Roger and Nadeane Hruby, lost his battle with heroin addiction and recovery in July, 2008. The Hruby’s aren’t alone. Due to low cost and high purity levels, thousands of high school and college- age students across the nation are experimenting with the drug unaware of the high propensity for addiction and resulting death. In memory of Reed, The Hruby family made a large initial donation and commitment to form an education effort aimed at reducing heroin’s deadly hold on young people.
As a result of the donation, RCC formed a partnership with the Illinois Consortium on Drug Policy, a research institute housed at Roosevelt University’s Institute for Metropolitan Affairs. The Consortium’s co-founder and director, Kathie Kane-Willis, worked with RCC educators on a three-year strategy to develop and implement a heroin use prevention program. The first year of the initiative is devoted to research, the second to content development and the third year educators will launch the education strategy, evaluate its effectiveness and submit it for peer review.