Emily's Hope & Emily's Hope Post-Overdose Response Team
Join Us Virtually
Event Details
In the peak of the ongoing opioid crisis, Emily’s Hope is dedicated to removing the stigma of substance use disorder through awareness, education, and prevention, and removing financial barriers for treatment and recovery. This session will feature the mission and impact of Emily’s Hope, a nonprofit dedicated to opioid use prevention and education, alongside the mission of a post-overdose response team that provides immediate peer support, resources, and connection to care following an overdose event.
With the use of unified approaches, session participants will discover how local efforts and lived experience can convert pain into purpose, and catastrophe into hope.
Whether you are a healthcare professional, educator, social worker, or advocate, this session will provide insight on compassionate approaches to support individuals both at risk of overdose and those navigating treatment and recovery.
Objectives:
- Detail the mission of Emily’s Hope in preventing opioid misuse through education, prevention, and advocacy.
- Recognize the role of a post-overdose response team (PORT), and the importance of connecting individuals to essential resources, empowering them to enhance their health and well-being, and providing hope in recovery.
- Demonstrate the value of peer support specialists in both post-overdose care and long-term recovery.
- Develop ideas for implementing or strengthening community-based efforts to address addiction and overdose in your own region.
Angela Kennecke, President & CEO, Emily's Hope
Angela Kennecke is an award-winning investigative journalist and a passionate advocate for substance use disorder prevention, awareness and recovery. Following the tragic loss of her daughter, Emily, to fentanyl poisoning, Angela founded the nonprofit Emily’s Hope, dedicating herself to erasing the stigma around addiction and offering hope to families facing similar challenges.
Angela has made it her mission to stop the stigma surrounding addiction and get more people to take action to find solutions to the opioid epidemic. She started Emily’s Hope to break down barriers to treatment for those suffering from substance use disorder and their families.
Angela called the charity Emily’s Hope, in order to spread the hope of recovery.
Diana Leal, PORT Program Manager, Emily's Hope
Diana Leal is the Program Manager for the Emily’s Hope Post-Overdose Response Team. She earned her Bachelor of Science and Master of Public Health degrees from the University of South Dakota, where she focused her graduate studies on substance use disorder within the perinatal period.
Following experience with personal loss, the mission of Emily’s Hope quickly became near and dear to her heart and influenced a passion for helping families affected by substance use disorder while simultaneously hoping to help end the stigma.