Personal Narrative: Changing My Community

There is not very much I would change about my community. It is wonderful as it is. Columbus has plenty of diversity within. The people also know how to come together when times are rough. They are not afraid to help each other out, and to be there for complete strangers. The one problem with the community on the other hand is the drug problem. It would be wonderful for drug abusers to get the help they truly need instead of the whole epidemic being shunned away by the rest of the community as if it does not exist. There needs to be more awareness about the issue at hand. Children are only taught that drugs will ruin their lives. They are not taught the details of how the drugs will. It also needs to be taught what steps to take if someone does fall into the addiction of drugs. I personally can’t remember being taught either of these throughout my entire K-12 education. Children are the communities future. We need to start with them. To teach them these valuable lessons, there is the D.A.R.E. program. I would like to take it one step farther. D.A.R.E. is only taught in 6th grade. After that, students are on their own to learn about the dangers of drugs other than what they may learn in a health class. There need to be more educational programs for after 6th grade, but ones that catch the students attention. People are
afraid to show students the real horrors of drug abuse for fear of it being too gruesome. Without showing the students the real horrors, it may never actually click what drugs can do to them until it’s too late.
The other side of the spectrum is the adults who are involved in drug abuse. There is a feeling within the community of them being shunned. We cannot just ignore them. Those people need help. I’m sure that a lot of those adults would love to get help, but just are not aware of how to do so. All because they were never taught in school.
I know that drug rehab centers probably do exist within the community, but I feel as though not many are aware of them.
Or they are scared of the sessions not being anonymous. There need to be more things to bring awareness to the rehab centers, and the steps on how to stop drug abuse. Such as flyers, social media posts, and other similar things. I would also like to make such rehab free for all people, if those do not exist already. This way people of all financial backgrounds can get the help they need. Also, if there were more things to bring attention to the rehab centers existing, more people could donate to help keep the centers
running.
There also needs to be more encouragement from the community as a whole for the drug abusers to get the help they need and deserve. If they had this encouragement, I feel as though they would be more willing to get help instead of feeling as though no one cares. These are the changes I would like to create and see within the community that is Columbus, Indiana. For people to come together to help fight the drug epidemic instead of it pretending it doesn’t exist.