The Ohio Organizing Collaborative is trying to shift the public perception of drug users in Lima through the arts. Their initiative is ‘Lift OH” and it has a mini-grant program for people to use creative outlets like painting and writing to help remove the stigmas and humanize people that are battling their addiction. Recently they gave grants to the Voices of Prosperity for their "Expression of Recovery" painting project and author and poet Ashley Cook to help publish her first book about her journey of recovery entitled, “Arsonist: Drugs, Salvation, & Revolution: A Collection of Poetry & Memoir.”
“Without him urging me to stand on my own, I don’t think I would have went for this project, I don’t think I would have wrote this book at this time in my life,” says Cook. “They kind of lit a fire in me. The deadline was stressful and also essential to make this step as an artist, and rip of that band-aid. I will carry this with me forever now that I got this first book out of the way due to their support and encouragement and I couldn’t be more thankful.”
“This grant helped support our project called “Expression of Recoveries.” We had 8 creative wellness workshops with folks who were somewhere along the recovery journey. Once we collected some artwork back, we had interviews with local folks who could talk about how they have been stigmatized, some advocates about drug use, and with some community stakeholders, to really put together a comprehensive video to talk about drug use here in Lima and what is available for folks to move forward in life,” adds Megan Fisher, Founder/Executive Director of Voices of Prosperity.
For more information about the project log on to https://liftohio.paperform.co/
