In the upcoming fall semester, the Addiction Awareness Association (AAA), an organization committed to education, advocacy and harm reduction, will join Trinity’s campus. Founded by students at Vanderbilt University, AAA has made its way to Trinity, facilitated by students connected to adjacent college organizations.
The organization stems from the Addiction Awareness Association of Tennessee, a nonprofit that contacted Bryce Dye, sophomore biochemistry and molecular biology major and president of AAA. Dye was already working with Wellness Services on programming related to All Other Drugs (AOD) and wanted to bring the new organization to campus as another means of facilitating education surrounding addiction and substance use.
“And what’s been shown by research to be much more effective is looking at the problem much more holistically and looking at why do people choose to use substances. How can this be mitigated? How can the harm be reduced and how can it be done from a much more safe perspective?” Dye said. “And I think that at the end of the day, that’s something that we’re interested in bringing to Trinity students: How can you do what you’re doing safely? How can you reduce the risk for yourself?”
The organization is in the process of creation: building the constitution and relationships with local nonprofits. Leadership positions aligned with each of the organization’s five pillars — education, advocacy, policy, clinical rehabilitation and community service — have already been established by the organization. AAA will officially debut in fall 2024 after leaders lay the groundwork in the upcoming summer.
Alongside the introduction of AAA, Wellness Services will begin Narcan — a life-saving medicine used to treat opioid overdosage — training in the fall semester. In this event, students will be provided with information on drug usage and what it looks like at Trinity, drug testing strips and the legal aspects of treating addiction. Marlaina Widmann, assistant director of student Wellness Services, described the training as adding to harm-reduction programming already facilitated by Wellness Services pertaining to alcohol and intimate partner violence.
“A lot of it is our educational Wellness Services trying to give people information so that they can make their own choices. So that’s why we try to provide a lot of information,” Widmann said.
Building relationships with local organizations will be foundational to the club’s programming, according to Audrey Crawford, sophomore religion, psychology and English triple-major. The club is also projected to symbiotically support addiction research being spearheaded by Trinity professors like AAA’s faculty sponsor, Kah-Chung Leong, assistant professor in the department of psychology.
“We’re also trying to help research and we’re getting people involved that have the resources to actually make lasting change as far as drug segments go and safety,” Crawford said.
More information about the club is on their Instagram and they will be at the fall student involvement fair. Though the club is still in the building stages, plans for longevity are already being implemented by the organization’s leaders.
“And our long-term goals are we want to make sure that this is something that the student body will benefit from. From a safety perspective and a research perspective, but also like a community,” Crawford said.
