By: Kali Fields, Director, Grassroots Advocacy
No one thinks the unthinkable can happen to them until it does. This is a message we hear often in every aspect of life, and a message Lisa at A Promise to Jordan has spent her life reiterating to her community any way she can.
In June 2018, a few months before Lisa’s son Jordan, 24, lost his battle with addiction he wrote a “Goodbye Letter to my Addiction” in which he states: “To be honest, a life with you is no life at all. And I’m going to make sure as many people as possible know they don’t have to live in your grasp anymore. All it takes to change is asking for help, and helping others get rid of you will be my revenge for everything you’ve done to me.” Less than a month after Jordan passed, Lisa founded A Promise to Jordan and now dedicates her life to Jordan’s legacy and helping as many people as she can.
A Promise to Jordan’s mission is to raise awareness and reduce the stigma associated with addiction. The organization conducts educational presentations, Narcan trainings, and provides a guide of resources in available in Connecticut and nationwide. Beyond helping people struggling with their own addiction, Lisa told Voices she just wants everyone to understand that addiction can happen to anyone. She also works with likeminded organizations to show the unexpected faces of addiction and identifying two words that best describes those individuals. For Jordan, those words are loving and affectionate.
A unique attribute of A Promise to Jordan is its dedication to those in recovery centers. The organization runs fellowship programs, hosts dinners at the facilities, and runs an annual toy and gift drive to make sure families of those in treatment have a special holiday season. In addition, the non-profit organization recently received a grant to launch a new sober mentoring program. As many of our partners know, the period immediately following treatment is immensely difficult, so the ability for A Promise to Jordan to support individuals as they transition and help with housing, employment, and accountability will be incredibly impactful.
A Promise to Jordan is planning their first major fundraising event on Thursday, April 29, 2021, in Hartford, CT. This one-of-a-kind event will be a Mocktail Tasting which will bring together restaurants from the Hartford area to show off their best non-alcoholic cocktails and appetizers. For anyone not in the area or those not yet comfortable attending in-person events, there will be a virtual ticket option where registrants will receive a mocktail kit in the mail and be able to make mocktails with the mixologists from the comfort of their homes. More information can be found here.
Raising awareness, as well as reducing and eliminating the stigma associated with addiction, is an immense feat that can be accomplished if we all work together. Lisa speaks not only with those in recovery, but to high schoolers, parents, and community leaders to show them addiction can destroy the lives of absolutely anyone. No one should have to find their child unconscious in their family minivan. Lisa’s dedication to make the world a better, safer, and kinder place is astonishing—we are so grateful.
We are so proud to be working with A Promise to Jordan to stop addiction before it starts. The fewer addictive medications we have sitting in medicine cabinets, the more lives we can try to save.
To learn more about A Promise to Jordan and to help their operations continue to prosper, please visit https://www.apromisetojordan.org/.
