King’s College was awarded a three-year, $300,000 grant award from the AllOne Foundation to establish a Community Health Impact Program, which will specifically address two of the Foundation’s impact areas: food security and opioid solutions. This two-pronged program at King’s consists of the King’s College Food Dignity® Project and the King’s College Opioid Use Disorder Destigmatization Initiative.
The King’s College Opioid Use Disorder Destigmatization Initiative seeks to strengthen outreach efforts that will educate college communities about opioid use disorder. Its goal is to decrease stigma associated with opioid use, change the culture of shame, and humanize opioid use disorder with the ultimate goal to reduce addiction, as those with an opioid use disorder seek treatment.
The goal of the King’s College Food Dignity® Project is to establish food marketplaces that will provide free, healthy food, both perishable and non-perishable, at local nonprofits. This collaboration between King’s College and multiple partner organizations will enable nonprofits to be self-sustaining and continue indefinitely as member agents of the CEO/Weinberg Northeast Regional Food Bank, providing access to free, nutritious food options for their clients.
These innovative programs are an extension of King’s Communities of Hope Community Engagement Initiative. This program is dedicated to an increased focus on volunteering, service-learning, and education campaigns on social problems, while serving as a model to be replicated throughout the community. Through the collaboration of the many partners involved, this sustainable program could significantly impact over 15,000 people in our region.
Both initiatives involve cross-departmental collaboration, including members from across the College’s workforce, such as faculty and staff from the Division of Health Sciences, the Shoval Center for Community Engagement and Learning, the Mass Communication Department, and King’s students.
The College will collaborate on these projects with numerous community partners and organizations, including the Food Dignity® Project, The Harry & Jeanette Weinberg Northeast Regional Food Bank, the Al Beech/West Side Food Pantry, New Roots Recovery Support Center, Victims Resource Center, the Service-Learning Intercollegiate Consortium of NEPA, Misericordia University, Luzerne County Community College, Family Service Association of Northeastern Pennsylvania, the Luzerne County Medical Society, the Human Services Division of Luzerne County, and the Luzerne/Wyoming Counties Drug & Alcohol Program.
For more information or to get involved with the King’s College Food Dignity® Project and/or the King’s College Opioid Use Disorder Destigmatization Initiative, please contact Dr. Bill Bolan at williambolan@kings.edu or (570) 208-8058.
Photo L-R: Freddie Pettit, Esq. ’96, King’s College Vice President for Institutional Advancement; William Bolan, Ph.D., Shoval Center Director; Briget Ford, M.Ed., Administrative Specialist to the Dean of the Health Sciences; John Moses, Esq., AllOne Foundation Chairman; Rev. Thomas P. Looney, C.S.C., Ph.D., King’s College President; John Cosgrove, AllOne Foundation Executive Director; Michele M. McGowan, DBA, CPA, FHFMA, CIFHA, Professor and Graduate Program Director, Healthcare Administration, The William G. McGowan School of Business; Amy Brzoska, MS, LAT, ATC, Clinical Professor of Sports Medicine; Christopher W. O’Brien, Ph.D., LAT, ATC, Dean of Health Sciences
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