REACH North Phoenix is a nonprofit coalition that focuses on educating young adults on the dangers of substance abuse. REACH stands for “Reaching Every Adolescent Creating Hope,” and this organization presents slideshows and videos to schools and other businesses about how opioids harm everyone’s health. Lisa Magarelli is the Executive Director and Founder of this coalition. One of the main reasons she decided to create this organization is because she has experienced the loss of a family member to an overdose. Margarelli understands how hard it can be to lose a family member to an overdose, and she wants to bring awareness to the topic to save others from experiencing the same tragedy.
With Arizona being so close to the US-Mexico border, all types of drugs are easily smuggled into the state; some of the most popular are fentanyl, cocaine, and heroin. Many people in North Phoenix don’t understand how prevalent drug abuse is in this city. According to Margarelli and her recent studies of the city, North Phoenix has a 12.6% higher substance misuse rate compared to the state. This makes North Phoenix the hot spot for all types of dangerous drugs to be bought and taken by teenagers and adults. As a result, overdose deaths of teens in Arizona have increased over the past few years, and increasingly, families are affected. As this issue became more prevalent in the community, Lisa decided to form a coalition specifically for the North Phoenix area so she could help people in need. As both an employee of REACH and a reporter for The Challenge, I found that my specialty is presenting to the youth of Arizona because they are the ones who are most affected by this surge in dangerous new drugs in the area. I give presentations on all sorts of topics like the dangers of vaping, marijuana, and alcohol as well as how to help people cope with stress and anxiety in healthy ways. Better connections are formed between speaker and listener when the Youth Director’s age is similar to their audience.
Substance abuse can tear families apart and rob innocent people of their lives. Opioids, like fentanyl and heroin, are highly addictive, and their effects on people’s bodies and behaviors are detrimental. Some of the side effects of taking fentanyl are vomiting, drowsiness, psychosis, and death. Fentanyl can also be considered more powerful and harmful than heroin because it is 50 to 100 times more addictive, according to the Substance Awareness Coalition Leader of Arizona organization, which specializes in providing information and statistics about drug abuse in Arizona. All opioids, especially fentanyl, pose a threat to everyone’s lives, and this is why REACH North Phoenix focuses on the message of saving people from the pain that an overdose-related death causes to survivors.
REACH North Phoenix has helped hundreds of people across the valley and spread awareness about substance abuse. After completing her first year as the Executive Director of REACH North Phoenix, Magarelli hosted a dinner and created a presentation full of information on her accomplishments and how many people were reached. For example, the presentation states that “Over 5,000 community members were reached through 15 events.” One of the jobs of the coalitions is to set up tables at community events throughout the city, and in just 15 events, over 5,000 people were given packets that informed them of the different facts about substance abuse and youth resiliency.
In all, the North Phoenix REACH coalition has worked hard to reach the youth and adults of Phoenix and teach them about the dangers and prevalence of drugs in the community. Helping the youth learn about this issue gives them a greater sense of grit when they are exposed to drugs, and this in all saves countless lives, which is the main purpose of this coalition.
