Tennessee Overdose Prevention is partnering with LINKED to host our 6th annual International Overdose Awareness Day Event on August 31st, 2020 at 7:30 PM EDT. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, our event will be live-streamed over Zoom. Participants must pre-register for the event.
2020 International Overdose Awareness Day
Our main activity will be the Candlelight Virtual Vigil. At the end of our Remembering slideshow, we are asking everyone to participate by lighting their own candle in honor of those lost to addiction, including overdose, suicide, and other effects of substance use disorder.
“In preparation for the event, our non-profit partner, LINKED, has tagged over 200 resources (of 25,000+ resources) to show you more information on IOAD activities and events across the country and ideas for community such as turning homes, bridges, and buildings purple, flying flags at half-mast, and having the message on the back of buses.
These resources may direct you to overdoseday.com to see the Activities, Ideas, the History of this event or to see the 2020 Activities for your state. Some of the activities and events may be a part of IOAD but not listed on the overdoseday.com site yet.
To find these resources and more information, visit our website
https://www.youarelinked.org/2020-international-overdose-awareness-day/”
Another way to find additional information is to search the following hashtags on your browser or on social media with the following hashtags.
#IOAD2020VirtualVigil
#IOAD2020
#IOAD2020EventsTN
#IOAD2020Purple
#IOAD2020Ideas
#IOAD2020Flags
We hope to turn a photo of the Zoom Candlelight Virtual Vigil into a digital billboard to remember those we’ve lost.
Activities leading up to the Candlelight Virtual Vigil on August 31.:
BILLBOARDS
We hope to turn a photo of the Zoom Candlelight Virtual Vigil into a billboard to remember those we’ve lost.
TOP will have at least 15 Narcan and Recovery billboards this year on Clinton Highway by Walmart and in Solway by the bridge going to Knoxville.
Click on the following link to see our billboards from 2016-2020
https://www.tnoverdoseprevention.org/billboards”
MAPPING OUR LOST LOVED ONES
“As a part of our International Overdose Awareness Day celebration, we have started a social media campaign to honor loved ones lost to overdose. We are using Jeremiah Lindemann’s Celebrating Lost Loved Ones map. Please add your loved ones and then share the link with two more people, so more people will be able to honor their loved ones.
https://www.youarelinked.org/remembering/”
TURNING YOUR COMMUNITY PURPLE
TOP has joined with other communities who are turning landmarks and lights purple in honor of International Overdose Awareness Day. TOP has continued their Facebook group called “Turning Your Community Purple 2018, 2019, 2020 that you can use to share photos of your homes, bridges and buildings turning purple and to be linked to other groups encouraging us to light up their homes and their community purple.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1542220495898776/?ref=share
PROCLAMATION & FLAGS AT HALF-MAST
The Tennessee Senate has signed a proclamation officially recognizing August 31st as International Overdose Awareness Day.
TOP created templates for an Overdose Awareness Day Proclamation and Flying our Flags at Half-Mast. These can be edited to send to governmental and city officials in other states and cities. Please contact TOP if you know a mayor or other local official with whom you could share these documents. We will share our template.
