By Erin Vallely, CANDLE Coalition Member

National Substance Use Prevention Month is celebrated every October. The goal is to raise awareness about substance misuse and share information about factors that decrease a person’s likelihood of using substances in harmful ways. Some common factors that decrease a person’s likelihood to use substances include healthy relationships with other people, community involvement, and education about the impacts and risks of substance misuse. To show your support for safe and healthy choices surrounding substance use, CANDLE encourages you to wear a red ribbon throughout the month.

Locally, CANDLE is excited to share we’ll be launching our first media campaign this month! We’ll be sharing information on our social media channels and in print to help educate the community on disability culture and substance use issues within the disability community. Help us spread the word by reacting to and sharing our content when you see it!

As always, this work would not be possible without your support and involvement. If you haven’t already, connect with us through these ways:

Our website at https://candlecoalition.org/
On Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/candlecoalition
On Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/candlecoalition/
On SnapChat at https://www.snapchat.com/add/candlecoalition
On TikTok at https://www.tiktok.com/@candlecoalition
On YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@CandleCoalition

If you have questions or want to get involved as a coalition member, or partner organization, please contact us directly at [email protected]. We can’t wait for you to join us and look forward to connecting soon!