NORTHAMPTON — Reminder Publishing connected with new Hampshire HOPE Coordinator Lauren Kelly who is continuing to settle into her role for the Northampton Department of Health and Human Services after taking over in January.
Kelly, who said she was grateful to begin this new role, comes with over a decade of experience working in violence prevention, health promotion and harm reduction roles in community and educational settings, informed by public health and trauma-informed practices.
“I’ve been familiar with the work of Hampshire Hope and had always had a lot of deep respect and appreciation for the multi-sector collaborative work that the coalition’s been doing over the years for our surrounding community,” Kelly shared. “It is work I have valued for a long time and this opportunity came at a good time.”
Hampshire HOPE is a multi-sector coalition addressing the rise in prescription opioid misuse, heroin use, addition and overdose death in the Hampshire County region, through policy, practice systems and change. The coalition engages with the community in a variety of approaches informed by needs and guided by data as well as provide other resources.
Some of their approaches include wide distribution and training for naloxone (Narcan), responding to overdoses by specially trained teams of recovery coaches, harm reduction specialists and community police officers, and promoting education on addiction and evidence based treatments as well as many other resources for those struggling with addiction.
As a resident of Northampton for the past five years, Kelly said she is familiar with the critical work of Hampshire HOPE and has seen the firsthand benefits through partnership opportunities in her most recent role as the former associate director of Health & Wellbeing at Amherst College.
“Like many in our communities and this field, this work is personal to me. I lost a sibling to the opioid epidemic after a long battle with addiction, and that experience continues to motivate me in this work. I am humbled to support and uplift the wide range of community-based recovery, overdose prevention and hard reduction efforts across Hampshire County and Western Massachusetts,” Kelly said in a statement on her new role.
Kelly said for the early stages of this new role she has been focused on building relationships with long-standing and emerging community partners, working closely with colleagues across the Department of Health and Human Services — especially within the Division of Substance Use Prevention. She noted that she is also dedicating attention toward the implementation of efforts around Strategic Intercept Mapping, opioid settlement funds and other community-informed initiatives.
“The work really needs to be informed and driven by the community, and I hope that I can be a facilitator and a convener of the work, goals and priorities of the coalition, but I definitely don’t see myself operating in a vacuum,” Kelly said.
Looking ahead at her first year as coordinator, Kelly said she looks forward to growing in the role and broaden her work in public health.
“I definitely see a lot of growth opportunities for myself. I’ve done public health work, which includes harm reduction work in community-based settings for nonprofits, as well as in educational settings mostly in the higher-ed setting, but I think a really exciting growth opportunity here is to be working in this capacity,” Kelly said. “Being able to take some of the skill sets I’ve been able to apply in other realms and translate it into really doing broader county and regional wide work.”
