ADAMH Board honors 2 individuals; Amanda-Clearcreek Hope Squad at awards dinner

LANCASTER — The Fairfield Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services (ADAMH) Board recently shared accomplishments and honored two community individuals and an organization as Friends of ADAMH at its annual awards dinner with a theme of Growing a Healthier Community.

On Tuesday, May 21, over 200 Friends of ADAMH gathered at the Wigwam Event Center in Pickerington to show their support for the local organization which funds over 14 nonprofit agencies in Fairfield County. Marcy Fields, ADAMH Executive Director, welcomed everyone and shared updates on the current projects including the StarLight Center, a crisis stabilization center located on Locust Street in Lancaster and the only one of its kind in Fairfield County. Fields introduced news of two additional facilities the Fairfield County ADAMH Board is working on with construction beginning within the year in Lancaster.

Fairfield County Commissioner, Jeff Fix, took a moment before the awards were presented to deliver a proclamation to Joe Palmer, the current chairperson for the county’s ADAMH Board. Fix thanked Palmer for his leadership the past nine years first as a board member and later as chairperson in navigating the Fairfield County ADAMH Board through leadership changes and seeing the Starlight Crisis Stabilization Center from start to completion.

Ryan Snider received the first ADAMH Award that evening. Snider is known to most for his work as a police officer with Fairfield Medical Center where he has served the past 16 years. He also works as a non-violence crisis intervention instructor, and with the ADAMH team to coordinate the annual crisis intervention training (CIT) to prepare local first responders to improve community responses to mental health crises. Snider has been instrumental in bringing a Peer Support CISM (Crisis Incident Stress Management) Training to Fairfield County. His goal is to make the community a safer place to live.

The Amanda-Clearcreek High School’s Hope Squad was awarded next as a Friend of ADAMH winner. Currently, 10 students make up the Hope Squad which is a peer-to-peer suicide prevention group whose mission is to serve students by being an accessible, intentional outreach agency, committed to the overall well-being of the local community. The group is one of the first of its kind in Fairfield County and truly embodies the mission and vision of the local ADAMH Board.

The final award was presented to Tim Hubbell – outreach specialist at Lutheran Social Services. Hubbell’s work with the unsheltered population within Fairfield County has been one of service above self. The past year, Tim has engaged over 160 individuals providing person-centered outreach and engagement services extending support and sometimes even minor first aid. His gentle, nonjudgmental nature enables him to develop an instant rapport with people and assists him in connecting vulnerable populations within the county to much-needed services.

Following the dinner and awards, the attendees were inspired by the words of Jones Loflin, an author and coach who compared our lives to the nurturing that goes into growing plants, which echoed the event’s theme of Growing a Healthier Community.

Gift cards, baskets and other items were donated from the board’s network of care agencies and community members for the silent auction to support the Friends of ADAMH action committee. The Friends of ADAMH is a political action committee to support the Fairfield County ADAMH Board’s ballot initiatives. The organization will be on the ballot this November for a renewal levy.

For more information about the Fairfield County ADAMH Board, please visit the website at www.fairfieldadamh.org.

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This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: ADAMH Board honors 2 individuals; Amanda-Clearcreek Hope Squad