Bergen County Prosecutor Mark Musella reported that the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office will partner with Alumni in Recovery and the Black Poster Project on an Overdose Awareness Day event on Wednesday, August 31, 2022, from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. on the Hackensack Courthouse Green on Court and Main Streets in Hackensack.
Prosecutor Mark Musella said the events will begin at noon with remarks by Prosecutor Musella; County Executive James Tedesco; Sheriff Anthony Cureton; Alumni in Recovery founder/CEO Nancy Labov; Dee Gillen, creator of the Black Poster Project; and Alex Roth, the Bergen County Director of the New Jersey Reentry Corporation.
The posters will be displayed from 12:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. according to Prosecutor Mark Musella.
The Black Poster Project is an addiction and overdose awareness group that travels throughout New Jersey and New York presenting a display called “Silent Memorials,” a series of posters featuring the faces of lives lost to addiction.
Its founder, Dee Gillen, began the project in 2019 with a poster of her son, Scott, whom she lost to an overdose.
Over the past year, Alumni in Recovery has partnered with the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office to raise awareness of the work being done by law enforcement to reduce overdoses and connect those struggling with addiction to treatment.
Prosecutor Mark Musella said this event is the culmination of that partnership and an opportunity to raise awareness of the fact that in 2021, Bergen County law enforcement reported 711 overdoses, including 155 fatalities.
Prosecutor Musella stated, “We are thankful to our many community partners for joining in this event, including Transition Professionals, New Jersey Recovery Advocates, Bergen New Bridge Medical Center, The Center for Alcohol and Drug Resources, New Jersey Reentry Corporation, the Bergen County Sheriff’s Office, the County of Bergen, and the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office.”