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A free community event in Orange Park, Florida this weekend will hand out Narcan. The event will also train attendees to reverse opioid overdoses, and connect people to addiction recovery resources across the region.
Driving Hope Forward is organized by Ed Fraser Behavioral Health Network. The event runs Saturday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Magnolia Point Golf and Country Club 3657 C.R. 220.
Admission is free and no registration is required. Attendees can walk in and pick up naloxone. They can learn how to use it, and talk directly with treatment providers recovery advocates and families who have been through the search for help themselves. According to coverage by Clay Today the goal is simple.
The event makes lifesaving tools and real treatment connections available to anyone who shows up regardless of insurance or income.
What Will Be Available
The event pairs practical harm reduction tools with direct pathways into care and planned offerings include:
- Free Narcan kits and hands on training in overdose reversal
- CPR training
- Resource tables staffed by treatment providers and recovery organizations
- Information on detox and treatment options across Northeast Florida
- Support for families navigating a loved one’s addiction
Organizer Rochelle Gagnon framed the day around a single question. What do people actually need to stay alive long enough to get well?
The answer in her telling is not abstract. It is a kit in a glovebox. It’s a phone number that gets answered. It’s a person who knows which doors are open and which are closed.
The timing is deliberate. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. The organizers are drawing a connection between addiction, trauma and the environments where both take hold.
Driving Hope Forward centers its message on the role of family and community in recovery. The organization argues that people heal faster when the people around them understand what healing requires.
Why Free Access Matters
Cost and confusion are the two biggest reasons people delay seeking addiction treatment.
Many families assume rehab is unaffordable before they have checked a single fact. Many people in active addiction assume they will be turned away. Events like this one compress the search process into an afternoon.
A person can leave with naloxone and they can also leave with a list of programs that accept their insurance or offer sliding scale fees. They can get a human being’s phone number without spending anything.
Naloxone deserves special mention. The medication reverses opioid overdoses and will not harm someone who is not overdosing on opioids. Overdose warning signs include pinpoint pupils, slow or shallow breathing, discolored lips and skin and unconsciousness.
Free kits are increasingly available through health departments and community programs. Keeping one at home costs nothing at events like this.
Finding Free and Low Cost Treatment in Florida
Florida has a large treatment network. Free or low cost options exist across the state including nonprofit programs, state funded beds, facilities that accept Medicaid and community providers with sliding scale fees.
Faith based programs and peer support through NA meetings add no cost layers of ongoing support after formal treatment ends. If you cannot make the Orange Park event a few steps cost nothing.
Search Rehabs.org’s listing to find free rehabs in Florida to compare nonprofit and state funded programs
Ask any program directly about sliding scale fees scholarships and Medicaid acceptance
Look up NA meetings in your area including online meetings
Request free naloxone through your county health department
Call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-4357 for free confidential referrals 24/7
Call [phone] for help finding free and low cost treatment options near you
A Narcan kit in a backpack or glovebox will not treat addiction. It buys the time a person needs to reach treatment. On Saturday in Orange Park anyone can walk away with one.
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