By Shelby Stewart-Soldan
Staff Writer
Ortonville—The Alliance of Coalitions for Healthy Communities has accomplished their goal of having a coalition in every community of Oakland County. The last piece of the puzzle was the Brandon Coalition, which will have their first public meeting at 7 p.m., Aug. 9 at The Old Town Hall, 486 Mill St., Ortonville.
“Our mission is to engage the Brandon community to empower our youth by focusing on prevention, recovery support and wellness by reducing substance use and encouraging positive and healthy choices,” said Courtney McClerren, executive director of the Brandon Coalition. “With mental health issues, substance use issues anywhere from vaping to opioid use, on the rise in youth across the nation, the mission of the Alliance is that Oakland County is covered to help mitigate those rises in substance use and mental health issues.”
McClerren and her current board members will welcome the community, as well as to talk about work and programs they will be doing in Brandon.
“We hope to gain the trust of the community, the support of the community, the willingness of the community and community groups to help us and work with us on our mission in creating a safer community for our youth and the community as a whole through our prevention,” said McClerren. “While we do focus on youth, we do not exclude older members of the community. Prevention can be done at all levels.”
McClerren has been working with Brandon Schools to see what kind of outreach programs are needed and what is a concern for the district and the community.
“We’re working on outreach programming, we’re hoping to work with BGYA, we will be at the Ortonville Farmer’s Market on August 6, we will be at Septemberfest, just really reaching out to the public, finding out exactly where the public sees the areas of concern are,” she said. “My goal is to meet the community where they’re at, kind of find out who needs what and plug that into the equation.”