April 21, 2025 • 30 mins
Community DC Host Dennis Glasgow speaks with Ginny Atwood – co-founder of The Chris Atwood Foundation - a nonprofit in Northern Virginia dedicated to saving lives from opioid overdose and supporting recovery from addiction. And they have a really big event coming up called Hope Fest 2025
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good morning, and welcome to another editionive of Community DC.
I'm your host Dennis Glasgow. This morning, we get a
chance to bring back a guest we haven't spoken with
in a while, and that's Jenny Atwood, co founder of
the Chris Atwood Foundation, a nonprofit in Northern Virginia dedicated
to saving lives from opiate overdose and supporting recovery from addiction.
And they have a really big event coming up called
Hope Fest twenty twenty five. We'll talk about that and
(00:22):
much much more. Here's my conversation with Jenny. I hope
you enjoy it as much as I did.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Good morning, Jenny, Good morning Dennis.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
It's great to have you back. It's been a while,
and I'm glad that we get an opportunity to talk
about the Chris Adwood Foundation again. And I know you've
got something really big coming up with Hope Fest twenty
twenty five, and we are going to talk about that.
But I think there's a lot of listeners that maybe
not had an opportunity to catch you last time you
were on to talk about the Chris Adwood Foundation of
what it is, what you do. I know you're a
(00:49):
co founder. Listen when I talked to nonprofits, especially people
like you. I'm always in awed, Jenny, because something heartbreaking happens.
But you guys have turned a an incredible scar to
the family and everything about Chris. You're going to explain
about why the foundation came up and why you co
founded it to what it is today, which is a
(01:10):
truly tremendous thing in his honor, but also raising money
of awareness. And we're going to talk about everything that
is a foundation. But I think we need to share
the story again for our listeners about why the foundation
was created and about Chris. And I've had a chance
to reintroduce myself to his story that you post on
the website that we'll give a couple times during our
thirty minute conversation. But tell us a little bit about
(01:32):
Chris and why the foundation was created.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Absolutely. Yeah, it's a tragic story, but I do really
love talking about my brother. He was an incredible human being.
We always called him Jim Carrey's long lost son because
he was just absolutely wild and zany, and he was
the funniest person I knew. But he also had the
biggest heart of anyone I knew, and was always helping
other people rescuing stray animals and you know that kind
(01:58):
of thing. Unfortunately, he dealt with depression and anxiety and
ADHD from a very young age, and those kind of
led him to self medicating with different substances, and he
unfortunately was introduced by the older brother of one of
his friends to heroin when he was only fifteen and
(02:20):
got addicted very quickly and took him down pretty hard.
And we spent years trying to get him help. He
wanted to get help, he didn't want to be on
it anymore. You know. He was in and out of treatment,
and unfortunately, in twenty thirteen, this is actually we didn't
know it at the time, right when fentyl was starting
(02:40):
to hit the local drug supply. He overdosed fatally in
February and I was at work and I felt this
inexplicable gut punch to my stomach. I just knew something
terrible had happened, and I knew I had to go
home home. I drove home and I found him unresponsive,
(03:03):
and I did not have narcan because at the time
that was really not available to the public, so I
wasn't able to revive him, and it was it was
too late. And so, you know, just a matter of
days after his death, his whole family and I were
sitting around the kitchen table going what the heck happened?
(03:25):
And you know, what do we go? What do we
do from here? And we realized that if we did
not do something to try to fill the gaps in
care that our family had experienced, you know, we were
just going to continue to watch more and more people
that we knew, our friends, our relatives, our neighbors, fall
through those same gaps. So we decided to start the
(03:46):
christ Atwood Foundation, in large part at the time just
to carry forward his generous, loving spirit and keep him
alive in that way, And we looked at all the
things that we had needed that we didn't get and
we started building those, starting with access to NARCAN that's
now widely available in part due to our advocacy in Virginia.
(04:12):
We also provide peer recovery support services. So that's something
that was really important for my brother, was somebody who
really understood what he was going through, because he went
to therapists and they might be kind and empathetic, but
he needed to talk to somebody who really got it.
So all of our services are provided by people who
(04:32):
have been through addiction and are now in recovery, and
I can talk more about all those services.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Yeah, no, we'll do that, and thank you for that.
And I think our listeners are getting a little context
to why I'm in awe and also I think they're
in on now. But what you and your family are
doing as co founder of the Chris Adwood Foundation, because Ginny,
I know you can only use your personal experiences that
were so tragic, but I'd like you to explain behind
the scenes as a family about when that happened and
(05:01):
then you decided to take it to the next level
to create the foundation, because I think that everybody's trying
to put ourselves in your shoes, and I know that
you hope that wouldn't happen in the family, but it
does regularly, and you guys dealt with that. But then
you created the foundation to create something so hopefully we
could be preventative with other families of going through something
(05:22):
that we did, raising awareness, raising funds where maybe they
don't come in regularly, and I think there's a lot
of great things that come out of it. But I'd
love to you to talk about transition, about what had
happened the morning of your brother and the son to
your family and his friends and family, and then creating
the foundation. Can you chat a little bit about that,
because I'm I'm fascinated by it because I always wonder
(05:46):
how somebody can have something with such despair happen to them,
and yet we're going to do this and try and
make it better for everybody still dealing with their grief.
Let's talk about that.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yeah, I mean people have asked me that before, you know,
why did you guys have this response to it? And
I think in part, it's just kind of who we
are as a family, And it was like this thing
happened that was either going to completely destroy us or
we were going to fight back somehow and make it count, right,
(06:21):
because it's such a senseless, tragic loss to lose such
a bright soul like him, And he was twenty one
years old when he died. I mean, he was in
the prime of his life. And it's like, if we
didn't do something, it was going to feel like meaningless
and we needed to have We needed it to have
a meaning. We needed to make his life really matter
(06:43):
and really count for something. And so it was really
I think initially, like I said, to keep him alive
in a way, and also to it was healing for us.
It was a way for us to kind of process
our grief. And my family's always been we've always had
like a strong helping mindset, and so we were hearing
(07:08):
more and more often about other people that were suffering
similar things and to be able to do something to
help others as well. Well.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
I'm glad you talked about that because anytime I talk
about any kind of nonprofit for what they do, whether
it's the Deathritis Foundation, which I have, I have our
ray and I've had since I was twenty one, or
what you and the family have been through with losing
your brother, it's about how you respond in the human condition,
right and trying to plow forward during very difficult situations.
So I'm just in awe of that, and I know
(07:38):
I keep on saying that, but I think it's just
so cool what you do. So I think we should
get some context to our listeners that maybe haven't been
introduced to the foundation before. And we're going to talk
about Hope Fest coming up and all the other things.
But if you were to give a thirty thousand foot
view Jinny about what you exactly do in the foundation.
What would you tell them.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
We're a community based recovery and harm reduction organization, so
we are created by, of and for the people that
we serve. We are people with lived experience helping other
people to find the recovery that we've found. So we
have a recovery community center in Fairfax City. We have
(08:16):
a van that goes out and provides harm reduction and
recovery support services out in the community, so we're meeting
people where they are, which is a really important component
of what we do. We also are very integrated into
the Adult Detention Center in Fairfax City and in Prince William.
(08:39):
We're providing services for folks who are incarcerated as well
as when they get out, we're sticking with them. We're
providing them with re entry services. And a big thing
that we do also is recovery housing because a lot
of people are coming out of treatment, coming out of
incarceration with nothing, especially no safe place to stay, and
(08:59):
then they're going back to, you know, the places that
they were where they were using or the friends and
family members that they were using with, and so we
get people into safe sober recovery housing as well, and
advocacy is also a big part of what we do.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Because which I want to Yeah, which I want to
talk to you about, because I know that's a big deal.
I also want to talk about events, volunteering and donations
because I know those are also big ticket items for you.
But I want to talk about, you know, what you've
learned over you know, not only just losing your brother
and the personal family thing that happened. But I always
(09:38):
explain to people that it doesn't matter what nonprofit you start,
it's epic because trying to raise money, government grants, whatever
way the funding is coming in, it's really really hard work.
And I know you know that. But I try to
tell our listeners, you know, make sure you at least
check out what they're doing and hit the donate button
if you can. But with that said, what have you
(09:59):
learned about when it comes to substance abuse and all
the things and not only you went through personally with
your brother and experience as a family, but as you
run the foundation getting help for other people? What have
you learned over these years?
Speaker 2 (10:14):
A lot everything. Yeah, we didn't know what we didn't know,
you know, when we were a family dealing with this
directly and in a lot of ways. You know, the
science has been a little kind of slow, and progress
has been slow to catch up to what we know works.
And one of the things that we have really embraced
(10:38):
in the last three or four years is harm reduction.
It's a harm reduction approach. So a lot of people
would say, you know, behind closed doors or sometimes to
our faces, like oh, he just needs to be thrown
in jail and that'll fix it. You know, he just
needs to suffer enough consequences and then he'll get his
act together. But the definition of addiction, the scientific definition,
(11:04):
in part, is continuing to use despite negative consequences. So
throwing more negative consequences that people does not work to
fix them and help them with a health problem. It
actually makes it worse. Because most people, the addiction isn't
the problem, it's the solution to the problem. They have
some kind of mental health issue or trauma or whatever
that they cannot solve in any way other than numbing
(11:26):
with some kind of substance. And so we learned that
through harm reduction, you can recognize that people are going
to use drugs and you cannot stop them. You can
throw all the consequences that you want, but that's just
part of our world. People are going to drink and
they're going to use substances, and we can work to
(11:47):
make it as safe as we can while they are
doing that, while also encouraging them to make better choices,
but recognizing and telling them that your life and whether
or not you survive is more important than my ideology
around like what substance you should and shouldn't look like,
and what's illegal and what's legal. The most important thing
(12:10):
is you being alive and healthy, and we're going to
give you these tools to do that. We're going to
help you because your life matters. And then in the
process they become they learn to trust you because they
realize that, wow, you actually do care. You know, you're
not here to call the cops on me, you're not
here to judge me, you're not here to you know whatever.
And then when they do decide that they want to
(12:31):
get help, they know who to turn to because they
have this loving, non judgmental support in their life. And
that's really been a game changer for us, both, you know,
in the work that we do and the families that
we counsel. We have a family support program and we
teach families how to work within that framework as well.
(12:53):
And that coming from a lens of lived experience and
the people that have been there themselves, is truly a
game changer. And getting help for people.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Well, that's really cool to hear. And you know, I
know this is not going to surprise you, but I'm
talking to more and more nonprofits that deal with mental
health and mental wellness. From Ellen Shannon at the AFSP,
I've talked to everymind dot org and there's many others
that I'm so happy because I have an almost twenty
three year old that lives in New York and she
just graduated last year and her peer group, as I'm
(13:26):
sure you know with all the research that you do, Jinny,
you know, it's just intense for them. And mental wellness
and mental health is a really big deal. But it
doesn't discriminate to any age and I think we know
that as well too, nor do drugs. But I imagine that
it's great for you and the organization that celebrities, sports athletes,
(13:49):
people that have that platform on social media or on
YouTube or it doesn't matter where it is that are
getting rid of the stigma of talking about mental health
and wellness to at least open that door so we
don't have to put it behind closed doors where these
things that you had addressed, they start and probably at
an early age for a lot of young people out there.
(14:10):
And as a parent, I know you're a parent as
well too, so it's on your radar that mental health
and wellness is at least being addressed without a stigma.
And that's a start. And I'm sure you're excited about that,
you and your family.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Oh, absolutely, yeah, talking about it is key. I mean
when we first started talking about Christopher's story, you know,
when he was alive, we wanted to respect his privacy
and he didn't really want everyone knowing what was going
on with him. But after his death we were very open.
We put in his obituary exactly what happened, and we
had people writing in strangers from all over saying thank
(14:45):
you for doing that. We had people who we'd known
for twenty thirty years come out of nowhere and say, oh,
I'm in recovery or I lost a niece to this,
and just talking about it just blew wide open this
door of conversation. And I've seen that happen in companies
as well. Actually, so one of our big Sponsorsletos, they
(15:09):
went on a campaign to kind of talk about what
we don't talk about, which is mental health and addiction.
They had somebody pretty high up lose a child, and
when they started talking about it as a company, it
just opened up this whole conversation. They will say that
it completely shifted the culture of their organization, like almost overnight, Wow,
(15:30):
where people were, oh, we could talk about this, I
can you know, get help through work. And it was
just a really big shift for them. And so, yeah,
it's not just on an individual level, it's on a
family level, it's on a corporate level. It's you know,
we have to we have to talk about this kind
of stuff.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Yeah, we sure did. I'm glad you addressed it. And
one of the things I always talk about to people,
and it doesn't matter if it's a nonprofit, but I
think it's just a human condition is that we always
want to relate, We want acknowledgment, and we want to
be able to relate that I'm not the only person
on this island, you know, And I think that's wonderful
that you do that. I do want to talk about
funding and we're going to talk about donating, because there's
(16:11):
many ways that you can donate to as the Chris
Adwood Foundation. We will talk about Hope Fest, some other events, volunteering,
and I do want to before I let you go
talk about being an advocate. But how are you funded
right now?
Speaker 2 (16:22):
So we are mostly grant funded. We're about eighty five
to ninety percent grant funded, and a lot of that
comes from the government. So of course right now we
are experiencing some of the federal funding cuts that a
lot of organizations are and that is threatening some of
our operations. So we're trying to shift and you know adapt,
(16:45):
and that's something that nonprofits always kind of have to do,
but we're a little freaked out right now and looking
for ways that we can, you know, rely a little
bit more on the community, on individuals, private donors, private foundations,
things like that, so that we're not quite so reliant
on the government funding. And and that is you know,
(17:08):
part of what I do as a director of advocacy
and development, and so I just always encourage folks to
reach out to me if you have any ideas for that.
And there's ways to donate on our website of course,
THECAF dot org. There's a big old button right there
for anybody who's interested in that and check. You know,
(17:33):
you can even text that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
So, and it sounds like you're also willing to have
corporate partners, because you do have business partners, whether it's small, medium,
or larger, welcoming that as well too, right, yes.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Of course, yeah, yeah. And one thing that we can
do for corporate partners as well is you know, we've
done this a number of times where if they support
us financially, then we come in and we provide like
a lunch and learn on voids or fentanyl is a
really big topic right now, or you know, mental health
(18:04):
generally and can kind of talk to the staff about
you know, what they're seeing out there. We can also
do workshops on harm reduction and you know, talking to
your kids about substances. There's lots of different educational things
that we can do to you know, provide a little
bit of value for the organization in that way.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Well, let's talk about something that's very exciting for you,
the team and everybody. Hope Fest twenty twenty five, Saturday
May thirty.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
First.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Tell us what it is, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Hope Fest is our annual spring festival. It is a
family friendly, substance free, sober barbecue cookout. We have Smoke
and Willies providing just amazing on site grilled barbecue. We're
going to actually have a cornhole tournament this year. We've
got games for the whole family. We're also going to
(18:56):
have therapy dogs this year.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yeah, And we also have and welcome organizations to come
and table at the event if you have a resource,
especially if you're in the wellness space, to come out
and have a booth or local vendors. And we also
are going to be raffling off some prizes and collecting donations,
(19:20):
all of which go to saving lives and supporting recovery
from addiction.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Let's give specifics about when it is again, how people
get tickets, the time of the event, how long, and
just anything else you want to make sure, and we'll
talk about it at the end. But let's kind of
circle back and how do you get tickets for it?
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Yeah, So again our website THESCAF dot org. You'll see
something pop up about Hope Best when you go there.
It's on May thirty first, and we're starting at ten
am with actually our executive director is going to be
doing some yoga to get us started, and then everything
else starts at ten thirty and we're going to go
(19:58):
until two and it's in Fairfax, Virginia, off of Alderwood's Drive,
and that information is all on our website as well.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Outstanding, I know that that's not the only event. Do you
have any other events coming up in the next several
months that you just want to kind of tease us
with and people can check out on the website.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Yeah, we don't have a date set quite yet for it,
but we are going to be having a screening of
a family Recovery documentary, which is we're really really excited for.
It's going to kind of shift the narrative on how
families treat addiction and help their loved ones that have it.
And that's going to be over the summer at some point.
(20:35):
That will be all over our website and social media
when we get the date set for that, and then
we're also going to have our gala in the fall,
as we do every year, and that information will be
on the website as well. It'll be sometime in October.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Can you talk a little bit about advocating listen there's
nobody that knows this topic better than you and your family.
As a co founder the Chris Hadwood Foundation, when you
get a chance to be an advocate or you talk
to people about advocating, what's the latest, what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (21:05):
So we are working right now on a lot of
the funding issues, so trying to find ways that we
can get the funding where it needs to go to
be able to continue our programming, and there's a number
of different ways that we're doing that. Something that we're
also always working towards is advocating for ways that the
(21:31):
especially the hospital community, can better address this issue. We
are lucky in Northern Virginia that actually a lot of
the jails are doing a really good job of doing
kind of more than they're even expected to to get
resources to people who are experiencing addictions. And we're because
(21:54):
if you think about it, if somebody is using especially
something like fentanyl or some other opioid for long enough,
they're likely to either end up in a hospital or
a jail or a morgue. And obviously we can't intervene
at the morgue, but the hospitals and the jails are
two places where we have this sometimes one time opportunity
to catch somebody before they go out and potentially overdose,
(22:17):
and we've lost that opportunity. So we're always advocating within
criminal justice systems and within especially the emergency department to
get people the resources that they need while they're there.
And unfortunately a lot of times these systems they have
one thing that they do and they say, well, this
is what we do. It's not our job to focus
(22:37):
on that other thing. And what we advocate for is no,
it is, it's all of our job. This is a
all hands on deck kind of thing. This is a massive,
massive public health crisis. We are seeing overdose rates start
to go down actually finally, but they are just coming
down off of an insanely high COVID peak. So we're
actually just kind of getting back to like pre COVID levels,
(23:02):
but they're still very high and we're losing way too
many people, and so this really is something that we're
not going to make a significant impact and if we're
not all doing our job and then some and working together.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
And I think finally to Jenny's point that and I
said this a little bit early in our conversation, that
mental wellness and health and Also, substance abuse does not
discriminate folks. It can happen to anybody, race, color, or creed.
It really just you know, it doesn't matter younger people,
older people, middle age. It is out there and it
is at epidemic rates, but I'm glad that numbers are
(23:38):
going down in certain areas. I didn't want to talk
to you about volunteering. If somebody wants to volunteer with
the Chris Atwood Foundation, how do you set them up?
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Yeah? They actually just again go to our website and
reach out to the contact us and that will get us,
get you on our radar, and we can reach out
about opportunities. We have some coming up for home best
if you like to volunteer for events. Fundraising, of course
is always helpful. And then we have a weekly kit packing.
(24:10):
So I mentioned that we've done some work in overdose reversal.
We pack and then mail out overdose reversal kits all
over the state of Virginia. So we've now given out
I think we're over one hundred and twenty five thousand
three doses of narcan, which is standing the reversal medication. Yeah,
so people really like to do that, especially like from companies.
(24:32):
They'll come and they'll bring a whole team and just
spend the afternoon packing up kits that are very likely
to go out and actually save somebody's life. So it's
pretty cool, Jenny.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
I only have a lot before minutes left, But I
do want to address this. I know that when it
comes to the government, and then also when it comes
to state and then also the media, families that aren't affected,
then families are affected, that everybody's got a different agenda.
But I'd love to ask you what are we all
getting right about what's happening right now with substance abuse
(25:01):
and what are we getting that's wrong? Because you're seeing
it on the front lines.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
I think in some ways what we're getting right is
that we are talking about it a lot more. Especially
you hear feentanyl being talked about a lot, and so
it's good that it's getting attention, it's being talked about,
but a lot of the efforts are siloed and they're
(25:30):
kind of a one time thing. We're talking about, Oh,
you know, go have an assembly at the schools to
talk to the kids about not using drugs. That's a
one time thing. Evidence has shown these kinds of one
time interventions don't really have a lot of impact. So
I think what we need to shift towards is a
very integrated, holistic approach of having information resources and interventions
(25:57):
throughout every component of our lives, and starting very young,
starting with elementary school, and having it be just a
part of what we do, you know, not like the
side thing, but we talk about our mental health. We
incorporate programming into the kids' schools in a routine, ongoing
(26:22):
way from a very young age, not just a one
time assembly, but you know, it's an ongoing conversation, and
so I think that that's something that we can do better.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
I know with you losing Chris and the family losing Chris,
that that is very specific and personal to you. But
if you were to give advice any family of seeing
signs and then they're may be a little bit puzzled
and maybe what to do. What's the best general advice
you can get people out there?
Speaker 2 (26:49):
If you have a suspicion that something is going on,
that probably is trust your gut. Parents have really good instincts,
and usually by the time you're noticing and worrying about something,
it's probably already progressed further than you even think it has.
So I would say respond very aggressively, uh, you know,
(27:13):
and and reach out. There's a lot of resources that
we have at the Chris Atwood Foundation. There's school, substance
use counselors, medical professionals. You know, there's lots out there,
and depending on what your situation is, the specific resource
you need might be different. But don't wait, don't put
it off. Unfortunately, with the way the drug supply is
(27:35):
these days, you know, it can it's like Russian roulette.
Every time somebody uses, they never know when it's going
to be their last time. So we can't really you know,
the adage used to be like let them hit rock bottom.
You know, you can't save somebody, you can't fix them,
and it's true you can't. But but we don't want
(27:56):
to wait for people to hit rock bottom because right now,
a lot of times that to death. So we have
to try to raise people's bottom by bringing them evidence
based resources as soon as we can, because earlier you intervene,
the easier it is to treat.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Agreed and without making any assumptions. Get ready for some pushback,
I imagine too, So thank you for sharing that. Let's
kind of wrap everything up. Let's talk about Hope Fest
twenty twenty five one more time, when it is how
people can get tickets and kind of wrap up our
conversation about the Chris Adwood Foundation. Jenny, the floor is yours.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Oh yeah, Well, thank you so much for having me
on here and for everybody who's listening. And I know
this is an issue that impacts the majority of Americans.
So if you are looking for a way to get involved,
start by coming to Hope Fest on May thirty first
in Fairfax That tickets are free to attend. We have
a suggested donation. You can also donate all of that
(28:51):
through the website thedaf dot org. We'd love to meet you,
love to get you connected and.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
Just address this issue together, all right, And once again,
the donate money is up there. You can't miss it.
There's many ways to donate, so if you could just
check it out, we'd really appreciate that. Jenny, it's always
great to catch up with you. I hope that Hope
Fust twenty twenty five goes really well. I imagine it will,
and just it's wonderful what you and your family are
doing and how you've responded with a really tragic losing Chris.
(29:23):
But I imagine, and I said this to you before when
I met you a couple of years back, that if
he were to have an opinion about what you're doing
and his name and his honor and getting the message
out there, I imagine we can all agree that he'd
be thrilled about all this.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Yeah, I always say that. You know, if he had
the choice between living a long life that didn't have
an impact and living a tragically short one that saved
a bunch of people, he would absolutely choose the latter.
So you know, in that way we have some peace
about that.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Right Well, listen, Jenny, thank you so much for joining
us on Community DC. We really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Thank you so much for having Jennis
Good morning, and welcome to another editionive of Community DC.
I'm your host Dennis Glasgow. This morning, we get a
chance to bring back a guest we haven't spoken with
in a while, and that's Jenny Atwood, co founder of
the Chris Atwood Foundation, a nonprofit in Northern Virginia dedicated
to saving lives from opiate overdose and supporting recovery from addiction.
And they have a really big event coming up called
Hope Fest twenty twenty five. We'll talk about that and
(00:22):
much much more. Here's my conversation with Jenny. I hope
you enjoy it as much as I did.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
Good morning, Jenny, Good morning Dennis.
Speaker 1 (00:28):
It's great to have you back. It's been a while,
and I'm glad that we get an opportunity to talk
about the Chris Adwood Foundation again. And I know you've
got something really big coming up with Hope Fest twenty
twenty five, and we are going to talk about that.
But I think there's a lot of listeners that maybe
not had an opportunity to catch you last time you
were on to talk about the Chris Adwood Foundation of
what it is, what you do. I know you're a
(00:49):
co founder. Listen when I talked to nonprofits, especially people
like you. I'm always in awed, Jenny, because something heartbreaking happens.
But you guys have turned a an incredible scar to
the family and everything about Chris. You're going to explain
about why the foundation came up and why you co
founded it to what it is today, which is a
(01:10):
truly tremendous thing in his honor, but also raising money
of awareness. And we're going to talk about everything that
is a foundation. But I think we need to share
the story again for our listeners about why the foundation
was created and about Chris. And I've had a chance
to reintroduce myself to his story that you post on
the website that we'll give a couple times during our
thirty minute conversation. But tell us a little bit about
(01:32):
Chris and why the foundation was created.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Absolutely. Yeah, it's a tragic story, but I do really
love talking about my brother. He was an incredible human being.
We always called him Jim Carrey's long lost son because
he was just absolutely wild and zany, and he was
the funniest person I knew. But he also had the
biggest heart of anyone I knew, and was always helping
other people rescuing stray animals and you know that kind
(01:58):
of thing. Unfortunately, he dealt with depression and anxiety and
ADHD from a very young age, and those kind of
led him to self medicating with different substances, and he
unfortunately was introduced by the older brother of one of
his friends to heroin when he was only fifteen and
(02:20):
got addicted very quickly and took him down pretty hard.
And we spent years trying to get him help. He
wanted to get help, he didn't want to be on
it anymore. You know. He was in and out of treatment,
and unfortunately, in twenty thirteen, this is actually we didn't
know it at the time, right when fentyl was starting
(02:40):
to hit the local drug supply. He overdosed fatally in
February and I was at work and I felt this
inexplicable gut punch to my stomach. I just knew something
terrible had happened, and I knew I had to go
home home. I drove home and I found him unresponsive,
(03:03):
and I did not have narcan because at the time
that was really not available to the public, so I
wasn't able to revive him, and it was it was
too late. And so, you know, just a matter of
days after his death, his whole family and I were
sitting around the kitchen table going what the heck happened?
(03:25):
And you know, what do we go? What do we
do from here? And we realized that if we did
not do something to try to fill the gaps in
care that our family had experienced, you know, we were
just going to continue to watch more and more people
that we knew, our friends, our relatives, our neighbors, fall
through those same gaps. So we decided to start the
(03:46):
christ Atwood Foundation, in large part at the time just
to carry forward his generous, loving spirit and keep him
alive in that way, And we looked at all the
things that we had needed that we didn't get and
we started building those, starting with access to NARCAN that's
now widely available in part due to our advocacy in Virginia.
(04:12):
We also provide peer recovery support services. So that's something
that was really important for my brother, was somebody who
really understood what he was going through, because he went
to therapists and they might be kind and empathetic, but
he needed to talk to somebody who really got it.
So all of our services are provided by people who
(04:32):
have been through addiction and are now in recovery, and
I can talk more about all those services.
Speaker 1 (04:39):
Yeah, no, we'll do that, and thank you for that.
And I think our listeners are getting a little context
to why I'm in awe and also I think they're
in on now. But what you and your family are
doing as co founder of the Chris Adwood Foundation, because Ginny,
I know you can only use your personal experiences that
were so tragic, but I'd like you to explain behind
the scenes as a family about when that happened and
(05:01):
then you decided to take it to the next level
to create the foundation, because I think that everybody's trying
to put ourselves in your shoes, and I know that
you hope that wouldn't happen in the family, but it
does regularly, and you guys dealt with that. But then
you created the foundation to create something so hopefully we
could be preventative with other families of going through something
(05:22):
that we did, raising awareness, raising funds where maybe they
don't come in regularly, and I think there's a lot
of great things that come out of it. But I'd
love to you to talk about transition, about what had
happened the morning of your brother and the son to
your family and his friends and family, and then creating
the foundation. Can you chat a little bit about that,
because I'm I'm fascinated by it because I always wonder
(05:46):
how somebody can have something with such despair happen to them,
and yet we're going to do this and try and
make it better for everybody still dealing with their grief.
Let's talk about that.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yeah, I mean people have asked me that before, you know,
why did you guys have this response to it? And
I think in part, it's just kind of who we
are as a family, And it was like this thing
happened that was either going to completely destroy us or
we were going to fight back somehow and make it count, right,
(06:21):
because it's such a senseless, tragic loss to lose such
a bright soul like him, And he was twenty one
years old when he died. I mean, he was in
the prime of his life. And it's like, if we
didn't do something, it was going to feel like meaningless
and we needed to have We needed it to have
a meaning. We needed to make his life really matter
(06:43):
and really count for something. And so it was really
I think initially, like I said, to keep him alive
in a way, and also to it was healing for us.
It was a way for us to kind of process
our grief. And my family's always been we've always had
like a strong helping mindset, and so we were hearing
(07:08):
more and more often about other people that were suffering
similar things and to be able to do something to
help others as well. Well.
Speaker 1 (07:17):
I'm glad you talked about that because anytime I talk
about any kind of nonprofit for what they do, whether
it's the Deathritis Foundation, which I have, I have our
ray and I've had since I was twenty one, or
what you and the family have been through with losing
your brother, it's about how you respond in the human condition,
right and trying to plow forward during very difficult situations.
So I'm just in awe of that, and I know
(07:38):
I keep on saying that, but I think it's just
so cool what you do. So I think we should
get some context to our listeners that maybe haven't been
introduced to the foundation before. And we're going to talk
about Hope Fest coming up and all the other things.
But if you were to give a thirty thousand foot
view Jinny about what you exactly do in the foundation.
What would you tell them.
Speaker 2 (07:54):
We're a community based recovery and harm reduction organization, so
we are created by, of and for the people that
we serve. We are people with lived experience helping other
people to find the recovery that we've found. So we
have a recovery community center in Fairfax City. We have
(08:16):
a van that goes out and provides harm reduction and
recovery support services out in the community, so we're meeting
people where they are, which is a really important component
of what we do. We also are very integrated into
the Adult Detention Center in Fairfax City and in Prince William.
(08:39):
We're providing services for folks who are incarcerated as well
as when they get out, we're sticking with them. We're
providing them with re entry services. And a big thing
that we do also is recovery housing because a lot
of people are coming out of treatment, coming out of
incarceration with nothing, especially no safe place to stay, and
(08:59):
then they're going back to, you know, the places that
they were where they were using or the friends and
family members that they were using with, and so we
get people into safe sober recovery housing as well, and
advocacy is also a big part of what we do.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
Because which I want to Yeah, which I want to
talk to you about, because I know that's a big deal.
I also want to talk about events, volunteering and donations
because I know those are also big ticket items for you.
But I want to talk about, you know, what you've
learned over you know, not only just losing your brother
and the personal family thing that happened. But I always
(09:38):
explain to people that it doesn't matter what nonprofit you start,
it's epic because trying to raise money, government grants, whatever
way the funding is coming in, it's really really hard work.
And I know you know that. But I try to
tell our listeners, you know, make sure you at least
check out what they're doing and hit the donate button
if you can. But with that said, what have you
(09:59):
learned about when it comes to substance abuse and all
the things and not only you went through personally with
your brother and experience as a family, but as you
run the foundation getting help for other people? What have
you learned over these years?
Speaker 2 (10:14):
A lot everything. Yeah, we didn't know what we didn't know,
you know, when we were a family dealing with this
directly and in a lot of ways. You know, the
science has been a little kind of slow, and progress
has been slow to catch up to what we know works.
And one of the things that we have really embraced
(10:38):
in the last three or four years is harm reduction.
It's a harm reduction approach. So a lot of people
would say, you know, behind closed doors or sometimes to
our faces, like oh, he just needs to be thrown
in jail and that'll fix it. You know, he just
needs to suffer enough consequences and then he'll get his
act together. But the definition of addiction, the scientific definition,
(11:04):
in part, is continuing to use despite negative consequences. So
throwing more negative consequences that people does not work to
fix them and help them with a health problem. It
actually makes it worse. Because most people, the addiction isn't
the problem, it's the solution to the problem. They have
some kind of mental health issue or trauma or whatever
that they cannot solve in any way other than numbing
(11:26):
with some kind of substance. And so we learned that
through harm reduction, you can recognize that people are going
to use drugs and you cannot stop them. You can
throw all the consequences that you want, but that's just
part of our world. People are going to drink and
they're going to use substances, and we can work to
(11:47):
make it as safe as we can while they are
doing that, while also encouraging them to make better choices,
but recognizing and telling them that your life and whether
or not you survive is more important than my ideology
around like what substance you should and shouldn't look like,
and what's illegal and what's legal. The most important thing
(12:10):
is you being alive and healthy, and we're going to
give you these tools to do that. We're going to
help you because your life matters. And then in the
process they become they learn to trust you because they
realize that, wow, you actually do care. You know, you're
not here to call the cops on me, you're not
here to judge me, you're not here to you know whatever.
And then when they do decide that they want to
(12:31):
get help, they know who to turn to because they
have this loving, non judgmental support in their life. And
that's really been a game changer for us, both, you know,
in the work that we do and the families that
we counsel. We have a family support program and we
teach families how to work within that framework as well.
(12:53):
And that coming from a lens of lived experience and
the people that have been there themselves, is truly a
game changer. And getting help for people.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
Well, that's really cool to hear. And you know, I
know this is not going to surprise you, but I'm
talking to more and more nonprofits that deal with mental
health and mental wellness. From Ellen Shannon at the AFSP,
I've talked to everymind dot org and there's many others
that I'm so happy because I have an almost twenty
three year old that lives in New York and she
just graduated last year and her peer group, as I'm
(13:26):
sure you know with all the research that you do, Jinny,
you know, it's just intense for them. And mental wellness
and mental health is a really big deal. But it
doesn't discriminate to any age and I think we know
that as well too, nor do drugs. But I imagine that
it's great for you and the organization that celebrities, sports athletes,
(13:49):
people that have that platform on social media or on
YouTube or it doesn't matter where it is that are
getting rid of the stigma of talking about mental health
and wellness to at least open that door so we
don't have to put it behind closed doors where these
things that you had addressed, they start and probably at
an early age for a lot of young people out there.
(14:10):
And as a parent, I know you're a parent as
well too, so it's on your radar that mental health
and wellness is at least being addressed without a stigma.
And that's a start. And I'm sure you're excited about that,
you and your family.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
Oh, absolutely, yeah, talking about it is key. I mean
when we first started talking about Christopher's story, you know,
when he was alive, we wanted to respect his privacy
and he didn't really want everyone knowing what was going
on with him. But after his death we were very open.
We put in his obituary exactly what happened, and we
had people writing in strangers from all over saying thank
(14:45):
you for doing that. We had people who we'd known
for twenty thirty years come out of nowhere and say, oh,
I'm in recovery or I lost a niece to this,
and just talking about it just blew wide open this
door of conversation. And I've seen that happen in companies
as well. Actually, so one of our big Sponsorsletos, they
(15:09):
went on a campaign to kind of talk about what
we don't talk about, which is mental health and addiction.
They had somebody pretty high up lose a child, and
when they started talking about it as a company, it
just opened up this whole conversation. They will say that
it completely shifted the culture of their organization, like almost overnight, Wow,
(15:30):
where people were, oh, we could talk about this, I
can you know, get help through work. And it was
just a really big shift for them. And so, yeah,
it's not just on an individual level, it's on a
family level, it's on a corporate level. It's you know,
we have to we have to talk about this kind
of stuff.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Yeah, we sure did. I'm glad you addressed it. And
one of the things I always talk about to people,
and it doesn't matter if it's a nonprofit, but I
think it's just a human condition is that we always
want to relate, We want acknowledgment, and we want to
be able to relate that I'm not the only person
on this island, you know, And I think that's wonderful
that you do that. I do want to talk about
funding and we're going to talk about donating, because there's
(16:11):
many ways that you can donate to as the Chris
Adwood Foundation. We will talk about Hope Fest, some other events, volunteering,
and I do want to before I let you go
talk about being an advocate. But how are you funded
right now?
Speaker 2 (16:22):
So we are mostly grant funded. We're about eighty five
to ninety percent grant funded, and a lot of that
comes from the government. So of course right now we
are experiencing some of the federal funding cuts that a
lot of organizations are and that is threatening some of
our operations. So we're trying to shift and you know adapt,
(16:45):
and that's something that nonprofits always kind of have to do,
but we're a little freaked out right now and looking
for ways that we can, you know, rely a little
bit more on the community, on individuals, private donors, private foundations,
things like that, so that we're not quite so reliant
on the government funding. And and that is you know,
(17:08):
part of what I do as a director of advocacy
and development, and so I just always encourage folks to
reach out to me if you have any ideas for that.
And there's ways to donate on our website of course,
THECAF dot org. There's a big old button right there
for anybody who's interested in that and check. You know,
(17:33):
you can even text that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (17:35):
So, and it sounds like you're also willing to have
corporate partners, because you do have business partners, whether it's small, medium,
or larger, welcoming that as well too, right, yes.
Speaker 2 (17:44):
Of course, yeah, yeah. And one thing that we can
do for corporate partners as well is you know, we've
done this a number of times where if they support
us financially, then we come in and we provide like
a lunch and learn on voids or fentanyl is a
really big topic right now, or you know, mental health
(18:04):
generally and can kind of talk to the staff about
you know, what they're seeing out there. We can also
do workshops on harm reduction and you know, talking to
your kids about substances. There's lots of different educational things
that we can do to you know, provide a little
bit of value for the organization in that way.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Well, let's talk about something that's very exciting for you,
the team and everybody. Hope Fest twenty twenty five, Saturday
May thirty.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
First.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
Tell us what it is, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Hope Fest is our annual spring festival. It is a
family friendly, substance free, sober barbecue cookout. We have Smoke
and Willies providing just amazing on site grilled barbecue. We're
going to actually have a cornhole tournament this year. We've
got games for the whole family. We're also going to
(18:56):
have therapy dogs this year.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Nice.
Speaker 2 (19:00):
Yeah, And we also have and welcome organizations to come
and table at the event if you have a resource,
especially if you're in the wellness space, to come out
and have a booth or local vendors. And we also
are going to be raffling off some prizes and collecting donations,
(19:20):
all of which go to saving lives and supporting recovery
from addiction.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Let's give specifics about when it is again, how people
get tickets, the time of the event, how long, and
just anything else you want to make sure, and we'll
talk about it at the end. But let's kind of
circle back and how do you get tickets for it?
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Yeah, So again our website THESCAF dot org. You'll see
something pop up about Hope Best when you go there.
It's on May thirty first, and we're starting at ten
am with actually our executive director is going to be
doing some yoga to get us started, and then everything
else starts at ten thirty and we're going to go
(19:58):
until two and it's in Fairfax, Virginia, off of Alderwood's Drive,
and that information is all on our website as well.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Outstanding, I know that that's not the only event. Do you
have any other events coming up in the next several
months that you just want to kind of tease us
with and people can check out on the website.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
Yeah, we don't have a date set quite yet for it,
but we are going to be having a screening of
a family Recovery documentary, which is we're really really excited for.
It's going to kind of shift the narrative on how
families treat addiction and help their loved ones that have it.
And that's going to be over the summer at some point.
(20:35):
That will be all over our website and social media
when we get the date set for that, and then
we're also going to have our gala in the fall,
as we do every year, and that information will be
on the website as well. It'll be sometime in October.
Speaker 1 (20:49):
Can you talk a little bit about advocating listen there's
nobody that knows this topic better than you and your family.
As a co founder the Chris Hadwood Foundation, when you
get a chance to be an advocate or you talk
to people about advocating, what's the latest, what are you doing?
Speaker 2 (21:05):
So we are working right now on a lot of
the funding issues, so trying to find ways that we
can get the funding where it needs to go to
be able to continue our programming, and there's a number
of different ways that we're doing that. Something that we're
also always working towards is advocating for ways that the
(21:31):
especially the hospital community, can better address this issue. We
are lucky in Northern Virginia that actually a lot of
the jails are doing a really good job of doing
kind of more than they're even expected to to get
resources to people who are experiencing addictions. And we're because
(21:54):
if you think about it, if somebody is using especially
something like fentanyl or some other opioid for long enough,
they're likely to either end up in a hospital or
a jail or a morgue. And obviously we can't intervene
at the morgue, but the hospitals and the jails are
two places where we have this sometimes one time opportunity
to catch somebody before they go out and potentially overdose,
(22:17):
and we've lost that opportunity. So we're always advocating within
criminal justice systems and within especially the emergency department to
get people the resources that they need while they're there.
And unfortunately a lot of times these systems they have
one thing that they do and they say, well, this
is what we do. It's not our job to focus
(22:37):
on that other thing. And what we advocate for is no,
it is, it's all of our job. This is a
all hands on deck kind of thing. This is a massive,
massive public health crisis. We are seeing overdose rates start
to go down actually finally, but they are just coming
down off of an insanely high COVID peak. So we're
actually just kind of getting back to like pre COVID levels,
(23:02):
but they're still very high and we're losing way too
many people, and so this really is something that we're
not going to make a significant impact and if we're
not all doing our job and then some and working together.
Speaker 1 (23:16):
And I think finally to Jenny's point that and I
said this a little bit early in our conversation, that
mental wellness and health and Also, substance abuse does not
discriminate folks. It can happen to anybody, race, color, or creed.
It really just you know, it doesn't matter younger people,
older people, middle age. It is out there and it
is at epidemic rates, but I'm glad that numbers are
(23:38):
going down in certain areas. I didn't want to talk
to you about volunteering. If somebody wants to volunteer with
the Chris Atwood Foundation, how do you set them up?
Speaker 2 (23:47):
Yeah? They actually just again go to our website and
reach out to the contact us and that will get us,
get you on our radar, and we can reach out
about opportunities. We have some coming up for home best
if you like to volunteer for events. Fundraising, of course
is always helpful. And then we have a weekly kit packing.
(24:10):
So I mentioned that we've done some work in overdose reversal.
We pack and then mail out overdose reversal kits all
over the state of Virginia. So we've now given out
I think we're over one hundred and twenty five thousand
three doses of narcan, which is standing the reversal medication. Yeah,
so people really like to do that, especially like from companies.
(24:32):
They'll come and they'll bring a whole team and just
spend the afternoon packing up kits that are very likely
to go out and actually save somebody's life. So it's
pretty cool, Jenny.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
I only have a lot before minutes left, But I
do want to address this. I know that when it
comes to the government, and then also when it comes
to state and then also the media, families that aren't affected,
then families are affected, that everybody's got a different agenda.
But I'd love to ask you what are we all
getting right about what's happening right now with substance abuse
(25:01):
and what are we getting that's wrong? Because you're seeing
it on the front lines.
Speaker 2 (25:07):
I think in some ways what we're getting right is
that we are talking about it a lot more. Especially
you hear feentanyl being talked about a lot, and so
it's good that it's getting attention, it's being talked about,
but a lot of the efforts are siloed and they're
(25:30):
kind of a one time thing. We're talking about, Oh,
you know, go have an assembly at the schools to
talk to the kids about not using drugs. That's a
one time thing. Evidence has shown these kinds of one
time interventions don't really have a lot of impact. So
I think what we need to shift towards is a
very integrated, holistic approach of having information resources and interventions
(25:57):
throughout every component of our lives, and starting very young,
starting with elementary school, and having it be just a
part of what we do, you know, not like the
side thing, but we talk about our mental health. We
incorporate programming into the kids' schools in a routine, ongoing
(26:22):
way from a very young age, not just a one
time assembly, but you know, it's an ongoing conversation, and
so I think that that's something that we can do better.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
I know with you losing Chris and the family losing Chris,
that that is very specific and personal to you. But
if you were to give advice any family of seeing
signs and then they're may be a little bit puzzled
and maybe what to do. What's the best general advice
you can get people out there?
Speaker 2 (26:49):
If you have a suspicion that something is going on,
that probably is trust your gut. Parents have really good instincts,
and usually by the time you're noticing and worrying about something,
it's probably already progressed further than you even think it has.
So I would say respond very aggressively, uh, you know,
(27:13):
and and reach out. There's a lot of resources that
we have at the Chris Atwood Foundation. There's school, substance
use counselors, medical professionals. You know, there's lots out there,
and depending on what your situation is, the specific resource
you need might be different. But don't wait, don't put
it off. Unfortunately, with the way the drug supply is
(27:35):
these days, you know, it can it's like Russian roulette.
Every time somebody uses, they never know when it's going
to be their last time. So we can't really you know,
the adage used to be like let them hit rock bottom.
You know, you can't save somebody, you can't fix them,
and it's true you can't. But but we don't want
(27:56):
to wait for people to hit rock bottom because right now,
a lot of times that to death. So we have
to try to raise people's bottom by bringing them evidence
based resources as soon as we can, because earlier you intervene,
the easier it is to treat.
Speaker 1 (28:11):
Agreed and without making any assumptions. Get ready for some pushback,
I imagine too, So thank you for sharing that. Let's
kind of wrap everything up. Let's talk about Hope Fest
twenty twenty five one more time, when it is how
people can get tickets and kind of wrap up our
conversation about the Chris Adwood Foundation. Jenny, the floor is yours.
Speaker 2 (28:28):
Oh yeah, Well, thank you so much for having me
on here and for everybody who's listening. And I know
this is an issue that impacts the majority of Americans.
So if you are looking for a way to get involved,
start by coming to Hope Fest on May thirty first
in Fairfax That tickets are free to attend. We have
a suggested donation. You can also donate all of that
(28:51):
through the website thedaf dot org. We'd love to meet you,
love to get you connected and.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
Just address this issue together, all right, And once again,
the donate money is up there. You can't miss it.
There's many ways to donate, so if you could just
check it out, we'd really appreciate that. Jenny, it's always
great to catch up with you. I hope that Hope
Fust twenty twenty five goes really well. I imagine it will,
and just it's wonderful what you and your family are
doing and how you've responded with a really tragic losing Chris.
(29:23):
But I imagine, and I said this to you before when
I met you a couple of years back, that if
he were to have an opinion about what you're doing
and his name and his honor and getting the message
out there, I imagine we can all agree that he'd
be thrilled about all this.
Speaker 2 (29:38):
Yeah, I always say that. You know, if he had
the choice between living a long life that didn't have
an impact and living a tragically short one that saved
a bunch of people, he would absolutely choose the latter.
So you know, in that way we have some peace
about that.
Speaker 1 (29:54):
Right Well, listen, Jenny, thank you so much for joining
us on Community DC. We really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (29:59):
Thank you so much for having Jennis
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