Despite pandemic, alliance programs to continue

WEST ORANGE, NJ — Members of the West Orange Municipal Alliance — including Department of Senior Services coordinator Laura Van Dyke, Main St. Counseling founder and Executive Director Steve Margeotes, and Municipal Alliance Chairperson Bill Sullivan — were at the Township Council meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 18, to discuss programming and resources. Throughout the state, Drug Enforcement Reduction funds are collected by fines imposed for drug-related offenses. The Governor’s Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse utilizes these funds to issue grants to each county in New Jersey.

“Those are the funds of fines collected from people who are convicted of drug offenses, and it’s allocated to alliances to do drug prevention work in their communities,” Van Dyke said at the meeting.

West Orange, for many years, has received $57,000 from the fund. The town matches it by 25 percent. The state funding was frozen in March 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic began, and in 2021, the funding was reduced by about 60 percent. The alliance’s current fund is $23,580.80.

“We realized we needed to use this lens of trauma-informed care, as we’re in this pandemic,” Van Dyke said. “Many residents were struggling with the impact of that. Guidance around drug addiction and usage was greater than ever.”

The money the alliance did receive is spread among several programs: the COPE Center, a mental health and addiction program based in Montclair that runs programs through the West Orange Public Library and the West Orange School District; LEAD, an antidrug curriculum run through the West Orange Police Department; parent training at West Orange High School and the district middle schools; the West Orange Community House and Main St. Counseling.

“I often am just grateful that Steve and his therapists are around, as they’ve been a tremendous resource, beyond Municipal Alliance, to the community, with their virtual support and otherwise,” Van Dyke said.

Before the pandemic, the counseling center hosted prevention seminars about drug and alcohol abuse. The staff members have worked at the Valley Settlement House, the James A. Degnan House and the John P. Renna House.

“We have not, thank God, missed a beat during the pandemic,” Margeotes said at the meeting. “Our funding is up and the council has been quite supportive.”
Margeotes and Van Dyke are planning on holding a town hall–style meeting in the next few months, as long as pandemic restrictions allow it, on addiction and mental health.

Councilwoman Cindy Matute-Brown was the council’s liaison to the Municipal Alliance in 2020 and 2021, and both Van Dyke and Margeotes said she helped navigate the loss of state funding. Councilwoman Tammy Williams became the liaison to the alliance this year.

Williams is the founder of the West Orange (Stop) Suicide Advocacy Coalition, a local advocacy organization that fundraises and spreads mental health awareness.

“I’m excited to hear that we’re looking to do an in-person event,” Williams said at the meeting. “That’s right up my alley. My passion is mental health awareness, so I’m looking forward to joining and creating even more opportunities from the foundation that has been laid.”