According to Facing Addiction, one in three households are impacted by addiction. No matter how hard the topic of addiction is to talk about, the Facing Addiction Organization works to raise awareness for the issue, educate others and continue the conversation

On Oct. 8, Jim Hood, co-founder and CEO of the Facing Addiction Organization, held an event honoring Joe Walsh. Walsh is an active supporter of raising awareness for addiction and was given the humanitarian award on Monday night at the Rockefeller Center. The event included living legends such as Ringo Starr, Olivia Harrison, Vince Gill, Wendy Williams and Michael McDonald who made an appearance to talk about addiction.  

The Facing Addiction Organization was founded after the Hood Family lost their beloved son, Austin Hood, five years ago due to an accidental overdose. Ever since then, this association has been very meaningful to the Hoods and many others.

“The overall goal of the organization is to raise awareness about addiction and make it something that people feel they can talk about publicly rather than shoving it under the rug,” Karolyn Hood ’20 said.

Facing Addiction also focuses on providing individuals with resources to begin their road to recovery. The goal is to reduce the human and social cost of addiction. They emphasize that they are not a treatment center nor a foundation, rather they are a national movement; they give people the resources they need to defeat addiction. Especially with the prevalence of fake treatment centers, this organization is a great outlet for people working to begin their journey.

Individuals voices need to be heard with such a heartbreaking and complex subject, and Facing Addiction has ensured their voices are heard.

In 2015 on the national mall, the surgeon general honorably chose this organization to launch his department’s first report on addiction. According to Facing Addiction, thirty-five million individuals have been touched by this national movement. Their first steps to abolishing this national emergency are educational campaigns, prevention programs implemented into schools, moving addiction into mainstream healthcare and gaining enough money to support additional research.

The Facing Addiction organization can’t solve this complex issue on its own. It’s essential that communities and individuals are willing to put a hand out as well.