Displaying items by tag: Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan

The opioid epidemic has resulted in virtually countless casualties across the nation, in Ohio, and right here in Akron. One of the unfortunate realities of drug addiction is that it spares no one in its path, claiming victims of all ages, including high school students. 

Faced with the staggering statistics, the Rite Aid Foundation is launching the Prescription Drug Safety Program, a new innovative digital course with the goal of educating high school students on drug abuse prevention, safe prescription drug practices, and more, at Akron-area high schools. 

"This is such an important program, and we're excited that we can do something here in Ohio," which Rite Aid Foundation Director Tracy Henderson pointed out is one of the hardest hit states in the U.S.

Rachel DeMaio was a junior in high school when she accidentally overdosed after taking a pill laced with carfentanil on October 28, 2016, in the arms of her mother Cindy in their Akron home. It was that date, according to Cindy, that "Rachel's Angels" was formed, a local organization, run by both Cindy and Rachel's high school friends, aimed at educating young people on the dangers of drugs. 

(Cindy DeMaio, Rachel's Angels)

About 20 student members of "Rachel's Angels" were on hand at the unveiling of the new Prescription Drug Safety Program at Firestone CLC Monday, February 25th, giving a crash course on the new program. 

(Charles Tyler, Sr. at Firestone CLC, showing the Prescription Drug Safety Program.)

On hand for the unveiling of the new program were local leaders including Mayor Dan Horrigan and Ohio House Minority Leader, and Firestone graduate, Emilia Sykes, who both agreed that fighting the opioid epidemic starts with young students, who can then help spread the word about the dangers of drug addiction and more. U.S. Representative Tim Ryan (pictured below), who was also there at Firestone, said to the students attending the program Monday, "We try to provide opportunity and you take advantage of it; and this program is about making sure that you can avoid the traps that are so readily available to you in today's society. Be smart. Use your head. We need you."

The Rite Aid Foundation has committed $1.7 Million over the next three years to the Prescription Drug Safety program that they say will expand to more than 400 schools across several states within that timeframe. 

See the full press release on the new Prescription Drug Safety progam launching at Akron Public Schools below:  

Camp Hill, Pa. (February 25, 2019) — In an effort to help address adolescent drug abuse and misuse in Ohio, The Rite Aid Foundation is bringing the Prescription Drug Safety program, an innovative digital course about prescription drug abuse prevention, to Akron-area high schools.

The program, developed by EVERFI, the nation’s leading education technology innovator used in one in seven schools nationwide, will be made available to high schools in Summit and Stark counties, at no cost. Representatives of The Rite Aid Foundation, Congressman Tim Ryan and Akron Public Schools announced the launch of the new program during a press conference and demonstration at Firestone Community Learning Center.

“The abuse of prescription drugs and opioids is a serious national crisis that threatens the health, safety and wellbeing of our young people,” said Tracy Henderson, director of The Rite Aid Foundation and charitable giving initiatives. “One of Rite Aid’s core values is to be a caring neighbor, involved in meaningful ways in the communities we serve, especially if it involves improving the health and wellbeing of children. We are proud to introduce this critical prevention education program and provide Akron-area students with the skills and knowledge to prevent the dangerous cycle of abuse before it occurs.”

The Prescription Drug Safety program uses an evidence-based, public health approach to empower high school students with the skills and knowledge they need to make safe and healthy decisions about prescription drugs. Through interactive scenarios and self-guided activities, students learn the facts about drugs, how to properly use and dispose of them, and how to step in when faced with a situation involving misuse. The course is aligned with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Health Education Standards and state academic standards.

Ohio is arguably one of the states hardest hit by prescription drug abuse and the opioid epidemic. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Ohio is among the top five states with the highest rates of opioid-related deaths. In 2017, there were 5,111 opioid-related overdose deaths in Ohio—more than double the national average. To help combat the opiate crisis, Ohio is investing more than $1 billion a year to help battle drug abuse and addiction at the state and local levels.

“There isn’t a community in the United States that hasn’t been affected by the opioid epidemic. It demands our full attention and requires not only treatment but prevention as well. It’s partnerships like Rite Aid and EVERFI that will help in educating our young people to make safe, sound, and healthy decisions about prescription drugs. With this kind of outreach and awareness, we can tackle the drug abuse ravaging our nation and prevent any more opioid overdose deaths from ever happening again,” said Congressman Tim Ryan, co-chair of the Congressional Addiction, Treatment and Recovery Caucus and member of the Bipartisan Task Force to Combat the Heroin Epidemic.

Akron Public Schools is implementing the six-lesson online Prescription Drug Safety program as part of the health education program. Firestone Community Learning Center is the first Akron-area school to integrate the program into its curriculum. Over the next year, a total of twenty local high schools will activate the program.

“The education and enrichment of our children is the driving force within our community. We must equip them to become visionaries of change and contribute to our community in a positive way,” said superintendent of Akron Public Schools, David W. James. “We are extremely grateful to The Rite Aid Foundation for helping us educate our students about such a serious issue. We know this new program will empower them to make healthy decisions and become positive role models in the community.”  

In addition to the activation in Akron-area high schools, as part of its commitment to creating safe and healthy environments for children and teens, The Rite Aid Foundation, through its KidCents program, will also fund the introduction of the Prescription Drug Safety program to high schools in Lucas County, Ohio as well as several communities in Washington, California, Michigan, Oregon and Pennsylvania. In all, The Rite Aid Foundation made a three-year, $1.7 million commitment to the Prescription Drug Safety program, which is expected to reach more than 400 high schools.

Through the KidCents program, members of Rite Aid's loyalty program, wellness+ rewards, can round up their in-store or online purchases to the nearest dollar and donate their change to KidCents. Members can also choose to direct their change to a specific KidCents charity by visiting www.kidcents.com. Through KidCents’ Step Up Fund, The Rite Aid Foundation provides a matching donation of $500 for every $500 a charity raises in contributions through the wellness+ rewards program, up to a maximum of $5,000. For more information, visit www.kidcents.com.

Since its inception in 2001, The Rite Aid Foundation has awarded more than $52 million to nonprofit organizations. Additionally, Rite Aid, through the efforts of its customers, supplier partners and associates, has also raised more than $87 million for Children's Miracle Network Hospitals across the country since 1994. 

Rite Aid Corporation (NYSE: RAD) is one of the nation's leading drugstore chains with fiscal 2018 annual revenues of $21.5 billion. Information about Rite Aid, including corporate background and press releases, is available through the company's website at www.riteaid.com.

Akron Public Schools (APS) enrolls more than 21,000 students and employs 3,000 teaching and non-teaching professionals in Northeastern Ohio.  The district, one of the state's largest and most diverse, covers 62 square miles in a city of 195,000. APS educators are committed to rigorous teaching and learning, safe learning centers and community engagement to prepare young people to be well rounded and ready for the challenges of learning that follow in life.  The goal of APS is to be the #1 urban school system in the United States.  For more information about Akron Public Schools, visit AkronSchools.com.

EVERFI, Inc. is the leading education technology company that provides learners of all ages education for the real world, through innovative and scalable digital learning. Founded in 2008, EVERFI has certified over 16 million learners in critical skill areas with more than 4,300 partners in all 50 U.S. States and Canada. EVERFI is an industry convener that builds Networks to tackle the toughest social issues, including the Campus Prevention Network, a coalition of higher education institutions committed to campus sexual assault and alcohol abuse prevention; and the Financial Capability Network, a coalition of industry leaders dedicated to improving financial outcomes for communities across the country. Some of America’s leading CEOs and venture capital firms are EVERFI investors including Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt, Twitter founder Evan Williams, TPG Growth, and The Rise Fund. 

The City of Akron announced Wednesday the purchase of 10 new thermal imaging units for the Akron Fire Department. 

In a press release, City of Akron Press Secretary Ellen Lander Nischt describes the new devices as "life-saving" equipment that will help the City's fire department "advance its mission to protect the lives, property, and environment of the Akron Community." 

Akron Fire Chief Clarence Tucker is quoted in the press release saying, “Heat-detecting cameras will allow our first responders to locate a victim in an environment with very limited or no visibility. For a firefighter searching for a trapped victim, little is worse than losing your ability to see due to darkness or dense smoke. In a rescue operation where every second counts, these units can make the difference between life and death, by enabling us to find victims faster and increasing their chances of survival.”

Akron City Council unanimously voted to approve the purchase of the equipment at an estimated cost of $50,000 for the ten thermal imaging units. 

The new thermal imaging units were purchased with funds from the passage of Issue 4 last November. 

“Once again, we thank the Akron community for their support of Issue 4, which has made critical safety investments like this possible,” Mayor Dan Horrigan said. “In the months and years to come, will continue to invest these funds in ways that make all our neighborhoods safer and stronger.”

Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan has released the full budget plan for the funds the city raised through the successful passage of Issue 4 on the November ballot. 

Below is the full release and budget from the Mayor's office. 

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Today, Mayor Dan Horrigan released the City’s plan for spending “Issue 4” funds in 2018. The budget outlines a plan for more than $13 Million in increased investment in police and fire protection and roadway improvements in Akron.

On November 7, 2017, Akron voters overwhelmingly supported Issue 4, a charter amendment that levied an additional .25% income tax to support police, fire, and roadway improvements in Akron. The tax took effect on January 1, 2018 and the City will receive additional revenue starting in February.

“This budget is a reflection of promises kept,” Mayor Dan Horrigan said. “While my administration continues to tackle difficult financial challenges resulting from cuts in state and federal funding, I am proud to budget for $13 million in new investment in our core city services that will keep our neighborhoods safe and strong. As pledged, these new funds will be split roughly equally between police, fire, and roadway improvements, depending on the most pressing needs of each department each year.”

“We are incredibly thankful that the community came together to raise this critically important and much-needed revenue,” Fire Chief Clarence Tucker said. “I’m proud to say that, thanks to these new funds, we expect to break ground on a new Station 2 this year—our first new fire station in several decades. Additionally, this year we will be able to purchase the recommended second set of fire gear for all our firefighters and extractor machines for every fire station, to ensure our front line personnel always have access to a clean, safe set of protective gear.”

“In the Akron Police Department, we will be purchasing 50 new vehicles to replace deteriorating cruisers, investing in our body-worn camera program, and making important updates to our 9-1-1 operating software to improve our service to the public,” Akron Police Chief Ken Ball said.  “Without these funds, much of this simply would not be possible.”

You can see the full budget here.  

Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan has officially named Ken Ball the 16th Police Chief for the City of Akron's police department Wednesday. 

Ball, who has been with Akron Police for 26 years, has been serving as interim chief since the abrupt resignation of former Police Chief James Nice back in August. Nice was asked to resign by Mayor Horrigan after allegations of professional misconduct and was said to be criminally involved with his nephew's car dealership in the city. Nice's attorney has denied any criminal wrongdoing. 

During the press conference, Mayor Horrigan said that when deciding to promote within, he knew that he needed someone who understood that while the Akron Police Department is an outstanding law enforcement agency, wouldn't accept the status quo and would always be looking to move the department in a forward direction. 

Of the appointment, Chief Ball said that he will approach the office with "quiet disconent," meaning he will not be the chief that is banging on doors, demanding change. Instead, Chief Ball says he will be someone who, "internally, not satisfied with where they're at," and always seeking improvement and to get better. 

The initial term for Chief Ken Ball's office is four years. 

On Monday, Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan's office issued a press release stating that the mayor has ordered an audit of the contract between Oriana House and the City of Akron. 

The audit announcement comes shortly after reports of overdoses and even an overdose death at Oriana House Akron. 

You can read the full statement from the mayor's office below: 

Today Mayor Dan Horrigan made public his plans to seek an independent audit of the contract between the City and Oriana House, Inc.— a non-profit community corrections and rehabilitation organization that provides confinement, chemical dependency and employment placement services and operates a work release program for individuals convicted of certain offenses through the Akron Municipal Court.

“As we, as a community, strive to build collaborative, effective solutions to combat opiate addiction, my priority has always been to provide the victims of addiction with safe, healthy environments in which to recover and generate real opportunities for those individuals to turn their lives around and contribute fully to society.”

“Furthermore, from my first day in office, my administration has been systematically reevaluating each of our significant long-standing relationships and agreements to make sure we are achieving the maximum benefit for our citizens,” Mayor Horrigan said. “It is critical that Akron residents have full confidence that their public dollars are being well spent. For these collective reasons, I have asked my staff to see that the City’s contract with Oriana House is subjected to a full, independent audit.”

In addition to the independent audit, Mayor Horrigan also expressed his intention to reevaluate the process through which these services are awarded. “As we look to the future, we will be critically examining our procedures and contracting criteria with fresh eyes, to ensure fairness and transparency throughout the process,” Mayor Horrigan said. Additional details about the audit will be made public as they become available.

A report commissioned by the Knight Foundation has a lot of Akronites talking.

Some of its numbers were not at all what local officials and groups expected.

The administration of Akron mayor Dan Horrigan considers it a wakeup call...and the mayor's chief of staff James Hardy compares it to the Blue Ribbon Report recently delivered to the mayor...

"They both show that we need to make signfiicant changes in the way we think, the way we operate as a city, and the way we engage as a community," Hardy tells WAKR's Jasen Sokol, "to change our trajectory."

Hardy says that there are good things listed about Akron in the most recent report, but says the status quo "is just not acceptable anymore".

The lack of growth among the numbers of Akron's young professionals surprised Nicole Mullet, who heads up Torchbearers and the "ArtsNow" group.

"But it also gave us a starting point so that we actually understand what's happening in the city, so we can't fix it if we don't know what's broken," Mullet says.

Mullet suggests that some young professionals just aged out of the 25-34 year old age group, and others may be finding more affordable housing outside of Akron, in suburbs like Cuyahoga Falls...instead of in Akron's neighborhoods.