By Erin Vallely, CANDLE Coalition Administrative Assistant Drinking any amount of alcohol comes with risks. “Dry January” is a health movement that encourages people to not drink alcohol during the first month of the new year. People choose not to drink alcohol for many reasons besides recovering from alcohol misuse. Other…
Substance Use and Disability: A Public Health Concern
Cortland County community members are aware that substance use is a critical public health issue locally and across the United States. However, many people don’t know about the connection between substance use and disability.According to data from the 2022 Community Health Assessment (CHA), people with disabilities in Cortland County are…
The Spoon Theory Reality: Understanding How Disabilities Increase the Risk of Substance Use
Spoon Theory is a popular idea that uses spoons to represent the amount of physical and mental energy a person has for daily activities. Each spoon represents a set amount of energy and multiple spoons represent a person’s amount of energy for the whole day. The number of spoons a…
CANDLE Celebrates National Substance Use Prevention Month
By Erin Vallely, CANDLE Coalition Administrative Assistant 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…
CANDLE Announces Official Website Launch
By Erin Vallely, CANDLE Coalition Administrative Assistant Our peer-led CANDLE coalition is working to prevent and reduce substance misuse within Cortland County’s disability community. Disabilities affect how people see, hear, move, and think. Although some disabilities are easy to see, others, like ADHD and anxiety, are harder to see. As a…
“Love Where You Play” Stewardship Day & Alternative 4/20
By Ally McCabe, Project Director for CANDLE CANDLE’s crew had so much fun volunteering at our local nature center last weekend! Lime Hollow was kind enough to host us during their annual Love Where You Play Stewardship Day, which served as a perfect “alternative 4/20” event for people of all abilities…
CANDLE Continues Survey Efforts During Alcohol Awareness Month
By Ezra Kiki, CANDLE Data & Epidemiology Intern As April marks the beginning of Alcohol Awareness Month, it provides us an opportunity to explore the impacts of alcohol misuse in our communities and society. With excess alcohol consumption contributing to one of the leading causes of preventable death, alcohol misuse awareness is the first step in overcoming this serious problem. In our local disability community, the CANDLE…
Support Needed: Take CANDLE’s 2024 Community Survey!
By Ally McCabe, CANDLE Project Director CANDLE is once again conducting a community survey that aims to analyze local usage trends of alcohol & cannabis (marijuana) among individuals with disabilities in Cortland County. The results of this survey will help inform our coalition’s ongoing substance use prevention work. Are you 18 or…
Low Vision Awareness Month: The Prevention Connection
By Ezra Kiki, CANDLE Intern With over 7 million Americans experiencing permanent vision loss and at least 1 million currently living with blindness, Low Vision Awareness month serves as an opportunity to better understand the risk & protective factors associated with some visual impairments and their effects on daily life. Broadly speaking,…
Learning Disabilities Awareness Month: Making the Connection to Substance Use
By Ally McCabe, Project Director, CANDLE Coalition The Cortland County Coalition on Cannabis & Alcohol: Neighbors with Disability & Lived Experience, or CANDLE, is a peer-led community group working to prevent and reduce substance misuse within Cortland’s disability community. As a peer-led coalition, our members know that disability and substance use…
CANDLE Launches First Community Survey
By Ally McCabe, Project Director The Cortland County Coalition on Cannabis & Alcohol: Neighbors with Disability & Lived Experience, or CANDLE, is a peer-led community group working to prevent and reduce substance misuse within Cortland’s disability community. As part of this five-year project, CANDLE will be conducting regular surveys to collect data…
ATI & CANDLE Participate in Fentanyl Awareness Day
By Ally McCabe, Project Director, CANDLE Coalition & Sara Watrous, Project Director, CACTC HEALing Communities Study On Tuesday, May 9th, local opioid overdose reduction coalition Healing Cortland organized our county’s participation in the second annual National Fentanyl Awareness Day. ATI, CANDLE, and other local community agencies joined a broad coalition…