Compact 2020 launches a new platform

In 2016, city and county leaders from Shelby County came together to form a partnership like nothing that had been done before. Their goal was to take a proactive approach to the increasing trend of substance abuse and addiction among students and young adults and equip families to respond to their loved ones facing these challenges.

That partnership, called Compact 2020, uses career law enforcement officers, who are specialized investigators, in an attempt to gather information to identify students and young adults who are at risk of substance abuse and addiction or are already involved.

The project, which is directed by the Shelby County district attorney, the county manager and the Shelby County sheriff, is the first of its kind and since its inception has been a success. While difficult to provide analytics or quantify to prove prevention efforts are successful, the Shelby County coroner said juvenile overdose deaths have decreased since the project began..

“We will take that as a win any day of the week,” said Major Clay Hammac of the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, who heads up Compact 2020.

Hammac said with the restrictions during COVID-19, they had to get creative with ways to get their message out. Their team created videos and vlogs, and then a parent mentioned the idea of a podcast.

The podcast, he said, is a good way to get their message out, and people can listen to it at their leisure, whether in their car driving to work or at night after putting their kids to bed.

“With these restrictions, that became a lot more difficult to be aggressive in our awareness efforts,” Hammac said. “We wanted to respect health and safety of our community, and I’m really excited to share some of the successes we’ve seen firsthand in Shelby County through the Compact podcast. There’s been so much innovation from the tragedy of COVID-19, and this is just one of those innovative efforts to remain engaged with our community.”

A team was set up, equipment was purchased, and everyone joined together in a collective effort to put the wheels into motion. They completed their first podcast recording in March, in which Hammac gave an overview of Compact 2020.

“When we recorded the very first one in March, I went into a history and laid a foundation of what our efforts are and what our mission is and how we can partner with the community,” Hammac said.

Each week will feature a different topic, including families who Compact has helped directly and others who did not have success stories with their family facing addiction but want to get their story out for prevention effort. Subject matter experts will also be featured.

“The heart’s intent behind this podcast is on par with the mission of Compact,” Hammac said. “We want to identify young adults and students who are actively engaged in substance abuse or who are at risk and work with those families to give them the resources they need or prevent tragedy in future.”

Hammac said the men and women in law enforcement assigned to Compact are heroes in his eyes.

“They have my deepest appreciation and respect for making a generational impact on Shelby County,” he said. “They want to help these young students and families, and I could not be more proud of them.”

Hammac said he has learned through Compact that the best way for a community to reinvest in itself is to connect others who have been through similar situations. After meeting with families and informing them of their loved ones’ situation, he said they don’t want to drop that bomb and disappear out of their lives.

“We want to connect them not just with clinical resources but also peer support resources,” he said.

The ultimate goal of Compact 2020 is to put the juvenile justice system out of business. Hammac said juvenile court Judge James Kramer said he would love nothing more than Compact to clear his docket.

Natalie Steed serves as Compact’s community resources development officer. Hammac said she is “pretty much the face of a lot of our community efforts.”

Steed said since COVID-19 hit, they have been trying to come up with new ways to reach the community.

“We started the parent and teen talk lines, we do a video series every week based on monthly themes, we started a talking Tuesday Facebook live, but the podcast was really a definite new adventure for all of us,” she said. “It’s exciting to think of all the information we can bring to the community.”

Steed said at Compact, they share a lot of information, resources, and promote community organizations, but the podcast is a way to share stories that listeners can learn from other people.

“We have a lot of it planned, but are still open and want to have the potential to grow organically,” she said. “Each podcast will be its own story. Our mission at Compact is to help prevent teen substance misuse and promote mental wellness, so that’s going to be the theme in all of the podcasts.

She said another goal of the podcast is to break the stigma even more and show that addiction does not discriminate.

“It’s in all different neighborhoods, it doesn’t have socioeconomic boundaries, all addicts don’t live under bridges downtown … it could be our neighbor right beside you,” Steed said. “We have kids struggling in all the schools in Shelby County, and we really want to get that message out.

She also hopes it will give people the courage to ask for help. They have seen many parents don’t want to admit their kids have a problem, not only because of the main issue, but because of what others will think.

Steed has been involved in prevention for over 15 years and said she has never seen anything that utilized law enforcement like Compact does.

“What I love about Compact is getting first-hand knowledge with law enforcement,” she said. “It’s their knowledge from traumatic experiences they can bring to the table to help not only prevent addiction, but when we intervene with these parents and kids, they can provide real life examples of what they have seen.”

The Compact Podcast will be available on most podcast platforms. Steed said they are also making a home for it on their website compact2020.com. They will also post updates on Facebook @compact2020 and their other social media outlets.

Compact will continue holding in-person events but will have to limit the size because of CDC recommendations. Visit their website to find a meeting in your area.