Applications to Open for Empowering Faith Leaders Program to Deploy
Evidence-Based, Ground-level Actions
JERSEY CITY - Today, Mayor Steven M. Fulop and the Department of Health and Human
Services announced a new partnership with the Clinton Global Initiative's (CGI) Overdose
Response Network to unite and empower trusted faith-based leaders with effective tools to help
combat the addiction and overdose crisis gripping the nation.
Utilizing community-based and evidence-informed approaches, the Empowering Faith Leaders
Program will directly engage and train community leaders across Jersey City’s diverse range of
practiced religions to build the skills and tools to deploy ground-level actions into substance use
prevention, treatment, and recovery. Applications will be available beginning November 2nd to
fill the 20 available spots.
“As the most diverse municipality in the state, we want to empower our extensive network of
faith leaders who are the critical lifelines and trusted advisors that people turn to for guidance
during hardship, such as drug and alcohol addiction. By leveraging our community resources, we
are creating an impactful program in partnership with The Clinton Foundation that will help
residents live healthier and more productive lives,” said Mayor Fulop.
Faith leaders are a trusted source of support and information who can influence attitudes and
practices at the individual, household, and community levels. Faith leaders can use their unique
and powerful platform to shatter the stigma that all too often keeps addiction in the shadows and
blocks access to supportive resources. When our community leaders are given adequate tools to
respond, they become a vital part of the solution to ending addiction and the overdose crisis.
Jersey City is one of three new communities selected for this program with funding through the
Clinton Foundation. Under the program, participants will learn about local prevention, treatment,
recovery, and harm reduction resources. The partnership will also implement community-based
engagement projects to raise awareness about addiction and the overdose crisis.
“Faith leaders play an important role in turning the tide on the overdose crisis that has reached
unprecedented levels in this country. Many people turn to their faith leaders during times of
crisis for guidance and hope, and when they are prepared to provide effective support, they can
save lives. We know that many faith leaders aren’t taught how to respond to these issues in
seminary, and our program fills this gap by training and mobilizing them to address these issues
with evidence-informed and compassionate approaches,” added Megan Affrunti, Senior
Director of Substance Use Disorders and Recovery at CGI’s Overdose Response Network.
The Empowering Faith Leaders Program in Jersey City will build community leaders’
knowledge, skills, and confidence to address addiction and the overdose crisis. Beginning in
January 2024, leaders from Jersey City’s Department of Health and Human Services and CGI
will lead a cohort of 20 faith leaders through in-person sessions on a range of topics related to
substance use prevention, treatment, and recovery over six to eight months.
Each faith-based organization involved in the program will receive $2,000 in funding from
CGI’s Overdose Response Network, along with the technical support to plan and execute a
community-based engagement project to bring the information and resources back to their
community. Faith leaders receive education and training on a wide range of topics related to
addiction, becoming trainers in naloxone administration, learning how to combat stigma, and
connecting with local service providers.
“We have more than doubled our services over the past three years to meet the skyrocketing
demand for mental health and addiction services amid COVID, and this Empowerment Program
is an important next step in our continued progress in building bridges across communities to
more directly address our residents’ wide range of issues and needs,” added Stacey Flanagan,
Director of the Department of Health and Human Services. “This program will explore how
different faith traditions view substance use, addiction, and recovery to build bridges across
communities.”
For over a decade, the Clinton Foundation has worked to address the overdose crisis in the
United States by increasing education and awareness to decrease stigma and curb addiction while
providing communities with the tools they need to support and save lives. This work has
included partnerships with drug manufacturers to make lifesaving opioid overdose reversal drugs
available to community leaders and community responders nationwide, partnerships with
advocates and research institutions to advance policy solutions, and training and resources for
community leaders. CGI has been a successful initiative of the Clinton Foundation, and has been
working with communities across the U.S. for over five years, including Little Rock, Arkansas;
Houston, Texas; Jacksonville, Florida; Atlanta, Georgia; Athens, Georgia; Savannah, Georgia;
and more.
Chaplains interested in the Empowering Faith Leaders Program can reach out to HHS directly by
emailing Jessica Garita at JGarita@jcnj.org.
About The Clinton Foundation
Building on a lifetime of public service, President Clinton established the Clinton Foundation on
the simple belief that everyone deserves a chance to succeed, everyone has a responsibility to
act, and we all do better when we work together. For more than two decades, those values have
energized the Foundation’s efforts to address big challenges, create new opportunities, and make
a difference in people’s lives across the United States and around the world. As an operating
foundation, our programs and the partnerships we build work to expand economic opportunity,
improve public health, confront the climate crisis, and inspire citizen engagement and service.
