Happy Friday! Here is your Brave update!

Bring a Show to Your Community! We will be hosting a Producer Interest Meeting on  Monday, August 16th at 8pm ET | 7pm CT | 6pm MT | 5pm PT This Is My Brave has developed a model - Brave Academy - that provides the process, training and research to invest into individual and community transformation through a storytelling experience. If you've ever been curious about bringing a This Is My Brave show to your city, we want to meet you!  Sign Up Now!  Accepting Auditions for Stories from the APIDA Community  This Is My Brave - Stories from the APIDA Community, a virtual event featuring Asian Pacific Islander Desi American storytellers is scheduled to air on Monday, November 15th at 8:00 PM ET. Tickets for this show are COMING SOON! Now accepting video auditions! If you or someone you know is interested in being considered for this show, please submit a video audition of 5 minutes or less to auditions@thisismybrave.org no later than Sunday, August 15th, 2021. New on the Blog! This week Emily Ellingson shared her story, “Speaking Out to End Stigma.” The blog post relays Emily's experience living with a mental illness and her reasoning for deciding to tell her story to others. Read it here.   Scholarship Opportunity  Gift of Voice is a mental health training and technical assistance center operated by people in recovery. They have established a Disclosure Scholarship to encourage and reward students who have publicly disclosed their mental health experiences in ways that positively impact their local community. The deadline for applications is the end of this August. Apply Here Monday, August 9th One Mind's I Am A Champion Contest. Share your story here.  Sunday, September 26th @ 7PM ET in Herndon, VA Floris United Methodist Church presents This Is My Brave’s National Teen Show. Register for free here.  Sunday, October 10th  4th Annual This Is My Brave Australia Mental Health Film Festival. If you have a film about mental health, or know someone who does, please encourage them to submit to our festival! Interested in giving online counseling a try? Check out BetterHelp.com. This Is My Brave has a partnership with BetterHelp.com - 20% off your first month of online therapy. Just go to www.betterhelp.com/thisismybrave, and you can get set up with a licensed therapist in the next 24-48 hours. Stay Connected! Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube to stay up-to-date with all things BRAVE! Simply click on the icons below to find us. Thank you to our 2021 National Sponsors: Forward this email to a friend or share on social media by clicking an icon below. Share Tweet Forward Copyright © 2019 This Is My Brave, Inc., All rights reserved.

"Because I am Black, I am more likely to be arrested for drug use than receive treatment."

Montee Ball sees a brutal double standard between the response to the current opioid crisis and that of the crack epidemic in the 1980s. “We got prison sentences — 10 years, 20 years — disenfranchising Black and Brown communities. But nowadays it’s, ‘Oh, it’s mental health.’ It’s, ‘Let’s give them the help they need.’ We didn’t receive that same treatment.” Racist drug policies, coupled with systemic racism in the health care and criminal justice systems, have sowed distrust and imposed devastating consequences on Black and Brown communities. Read Montee’s Story People and families struggling with substance use and addiction encounter a variety of systemic challenges throughout their journey, which is why we created a new section of our website called “Help Us Change the Story of Addiction.” The site features personal stories like Montee’s that bring these structural barriers to life. Each story highlighted will offer visitors an opportunity to advocate for specific policy change by signing an action alert or by sharing similar stories from their own journey. Let’s start re-writing the story of addiction today. Change the Story of Addiction

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Before You Give Up, Allow Jesus To Take Over Your Life

In the News: Opioid Overdose-Related Visits to Emergency Rooms Increased Sharply During Pandemic

PLEASE NOTE: We are taking a one-week publishing hiatus and will resume service Thursday, August 19. Thank you for your readership!   Top Stories & Key Reads of the Week   FS Productions/Getty Images   Opioid Overdose-Related Visits to Emergency Rooms Increased Sharply During Pandemic Emergency room visits for opioid overdoses rose 28.5% last year, compared with 2018 and 2019, a new study finds. Read More   Lana Stock/Getty Images Doctors Often Don’t Ask Older Adults About Their Alcohol Use: Study A new study finds more than half of U.S. adults age 65 and older who use alcohol and visited their health care provider in the past year were not asked about their alcohol use. Read More   Halfpoint Images/Getty Images To Protect Youth, Learn From Tobacco Control Efforts When Legalizing Marijuana Policymakers should heed lessons learned from tobacco control efforts when legalizing marijuana in order to protect youth, according to a commentary in the Journal of Adolescent Health. Read More     Read our digest of this week’s news.   Latest Drug & Alcohol News     Policy News Roundup Find more of our must-reads in policy news, including the negative impact of punitive approaches to substance use. Research News Roundup View our curated digest of the latest research news, including an evidence-based parenting intervention designed for mothers struggling with addiction.   Help us change the story of addiction.   Read Montee's story   Partnership in the News & Other Headlines Partnership in the News Why You Should Take Narcan Training Right Now (Verywell Mind) Quotes Pat Aussem, L.P.C., M.A.C., Associate Vice President, Consumer Clinical Content Development at Partnership to End Addiction Other Headlines of Interest NJ Expert: Talking Drugs with Your Kids Can't Wait Until Teen Years (New Jersey 101.5) How American Attitudes About Drugs Changed Overnight (GQ) Was It 'Reasonable' To Ship 81 Million Opioid Pills To This Small West Virginia City? (NPR) As opioid epidemic rages, an overdose antidote is in short supply (Boston Globe)

711 Third Avenue, 5th Floor, Suite 500 New York, NY 10017 drugfree.org Get involved Work with us Our expertise About us privacy policy     DONATE NOW   Get Support Now Our help is free, confidential and safe.   Text 55753 Schedule a Call Email a Specialist