Christian & Small Partner Rick D. Norris will speak at the inaugural Help the Hills town hall meeting at 6 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 18, at Vestavia Hills United Methodist Church. This town hall meeting is a community forum that is part of a larger initiative designed to address childhood/teenage substance abuse problems in Vestavia Hills.
Norris’ son, Ricky David Norris III (Tripp), died from a mix of alcohol and street heroin on February 25, 2011. He was only 22 years old and a senior English major at the University of Alabama.
“By sharing our story, I hope to help make people aware that there is a real problem – so they won’t have to go through the same nightmare my family went through,” Norris said in this recent Nonstop Insights blog post. “If my words help just one family realize that they have a problem in their home, it will be worth it for me. I don’t have any magical answers or parenting tips, but by helping raise awareness I hope that parents and community members will see that we must do something about it now rather than later.”
The first Help the Hills Town Hall meeting will be a forum of open, honest conversation about the program. In the next few weeks after the initial meeting, there will be a series of in-home meetings on various subjects. Each in-home meeting will cover a single topic with a facilitator to help move the discussion and be a resource for ideas. After this initial launch, Help the Hills will continue with cycles of town hall meetings and in-home meetings next year as well, with the next cycle beginning in January 2015.
Help the Hills was developed as a project by the 2011-2012 Leadership Vestavia Hills class. It surveyed community and civic leaders, law enforcement, school officials and residents to find out the extent of the substance abuse problem and brainstormed ways to address it. The program turned into a partnership between the City of Vestavia Hills, Vestavia Hills Police Department, the Vestavia Hills Board of Education and concerned citizens. The goal is for these entities to work together to address childhood/teenage substance abuse problems in Vestavia Hills, removing all blame and judgment from the conversation.
To learn more, visit Leadership Vestavia Hills or email helpthehills@charter.net. Learn more about Tripp’s story in this Vestavia Voice article.