Alaina Bookman reports for the “Beyond the Violence” collaborative, a partnership between AL.com, The Birmingham Times and CBS42. Support her work here.

Eugene Jacobs has been preaching at the church he grew up in, Union Springs Missionary Baptist Church in Talladega, for 10 years.

When a member of his church came to him in search of guidance for a loved one who was struggling with addiction, Jacobs said he did not know what to do besides pray. What Jacobs did know was that something had to change.

When he came across an email from the Agency for Substance Abuse Prevention, an Oxford, Alabama, based education and intervention group, promoting a new initiative to encourage faith leaders to implement mental health resources into their pastoral work, Jacobs jumped at the opportunity to participate. After attending his first Faith Based Support Specialist training conference in 2022, Jacobs changed the way he led his congregation to better support community members who struggle with addiction and substance misuse.

“It was like divine intervention. It helped me as a person to recognize that I had been participating in a stigma that was keeping me from effectively reaching people that were struggling. And it gave me the information I needed to know about what people are going through when they’re seeking treatment and recovery,” Jacobs said.

“It’s changed my approach to preaching. It really helped me just to connect with people.”

Bridging the gap

Today, as a faith based support specialist ambassador with ASAP, Jacobs leads training sessions alongside other experts to bridge the gap between faith and mental health.

Since starting the initiative in March 2022, ASAP has certified 335 faith leaders in cities across Alabama and beyond through a curriculum backed by the Alabama Department of Mental Health.

In Alabama, 1,492 people died from opioid overdose in 2022, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Jefferson County, drug overdose deaths increased from 452 deaths in 2022 to 494 deaths in 2023. Alabama has been the highest opioid prescribing state per capita since 2016 with a rate of 121 prescriptions per 100 people, according to the Alabama Department of Mental Health.

Addiction affects people from all walks of life. Experts say it is vital for community members to know what resources are available for those in need.

Jacobs hopes that by training other faith leaders to combine their faith work with mental health service, they can transform their communities.

“In our training we deal with topics like effectively communicating with others, what prevention looks like, how to implement those prevention tactics in the faith community, treatment, recovery and what that looks like and how to actually open up a compassionate and understanding conversation so we can move forward to some real solutions,” Jacobs said.

Testimonials: How local faith leaders are transforming their communities

Christie McLendon, a certified addictions counselor and outreach supervisor for Self Recovery Medical Detox, has been sober for more than 19 years.

She works at Christ Community Church in Enterprise, Alabama, and has worked in the addiction recovery field for six years connecting individuals with mental health and recovery resources and teaching others about trauma, stigma and the realities of addiction and recovery.

“We’re saving lives,” McLendon said.

She his attended six of ASAP’s Faith Based Support Specialist conferences where she learned new approaches to recovery and connecting with people.

“One of the reasons I support the FBSS is because I know that there is a huge need to bridge that gap, and the stigma and people’s personal bias between the faith community and addicts,” McLendon said. “

I grew up in church, and I still fell into addiction. I believe prayer is a vital part of recovery, but you need something else, too. I hope and pray that more pastors or people in the faith community get on board.”

ASAP’s Faith Based Support Specialist Training has also reached faith leaders beyond Alabama.

As a young man, Rev. Harold Gordon struggled with addiction and served time in jail as a result.

As he grew older, Gordon dreamed of preaching and said God called him to the church. Today, Gordon is a gospel preacher at Buena Vista Missionary Baptist Church, a registered addiction counselor and president of the New Orleans Recovery Collective, a nonprofit teaching individuals how to recognize mental illnesses and addiction and how to help someone in need.

Gordon has worked in the substance misuse prevention field for over 26 years and has been sober for 27 years. He leads community conversations about the importance of mental health and recovery resources.

“It’s hard, but necessary work, especially in the faith community…I believe that God has provided every need there is. We just got to take advantage of the help and resources, recovery, prevention, he has given us.”

Gordon said he learned new methods to connect with young people and avoid stigmatizing language through Jacobs’ Faith Based Support Specialist Training session. He said ASAP’s training is also making a noticeable difference among other faith leaders in his community.

“Everybody was bright eyed and bushy tailed. It was such a good atmosphere. You could feel the energy and the passion that the faith leaders had about learning about prevention and seeing that really motivated me and the other folk in the room to believe that we could really help people,” Gordon said about the training conference.

ASAP will be hosting its next conference on Dec. 5 and 6, at the George C. Wallace Community College in Selma, Alabama.

“I think it’s just something that every faith leader needs, because there are a lot of people who are suffering. People trust faith leaders. When they come to us, they expect for us to have answers,” Jacobs said. “We in the faith community can be that support system for a person seeking to build their life again.”

If you or a loved one is struggling with addiction, AL.com created a toolkit of substance misuse prevention resources that includes a guide to help someone who has overdosed.