Living Amends Foundation
To amend means to make a change. We believe the epidemic proportion of the drug problem in the United States requires change, so we decided to act on creating the change we want to see.
We started interviewing and filming families who have lost loved ones to addiction, particularly to prescription opioids and heroin. We’ve seen the raw results of this plague and couldn’t sit on the sidelines. It seemed like everyone we talked to knew or was related to someone who had died of an overdose or complications of opioid drug use.
We had to do something. One thing that we do well is document stories, so this is what we set out to do. It became our mission.
Everyone knows how powerful personal stories can be. As we began to document heart wrenching stories through visual media, we began to see the cathartic effects of telling the story, of seeing the personal effects on real people, and of allowing parents and friends to re-live through story the life of their son, daughter, friend, or cousin. In reliving the story, they bring to life for themselves and others the reality of lives lost, lives lived, pain, joy, sorrow and loss.
This has been a real education — not drug facts or signs or symptoms — It’s way too late for that. These are stories that need to be heard, for the uninitiated public to see, feel and hear what the drug epidemic in America means in human terms. The cathartic value for the story teller is important, but the experience for the viewer, who gets an unusually intimate and visceral connection to a personal story in a way other media cannot capture, is a call to action and a demand for change.
We have watched as one story teller tells another and before long whole groups of mothers, aunts, uncles, fathers and friends have found us, wanting to tell their story, to help and be helped; to share the pain and to spread the word about what the drug epidemic means to people across all strata of our society.
Our scope has become national and these stories are being heard. By doctors, parents, counselors, schools, drug courts, police, probation departments, rehabs and others who need knowledge and information to help the addicts and families who still suffer. We hope to expand our ability to serve, and seek your help to do so.