News Archive
The Center for Urban Families & Mario Present a Community Forum:
Saving Our Families: The Impact of Addiction on Youth
June 30, 2009
On Tuesday, June 30th the Center for Urban Families hosted a community conversation in conjunction with Mario’s Do Right Foundation at the New Shiloh Baptist Church Family Life Center. Mario, an RnB singer and Baltimore native partnered with CFUF to hold several panel discussions on addiction and its impact on parenting. The first panel, adult children of addicts, gave us perspective on how to overcome such an experience and become productive successful people while the second panel, teen and young adult children of addicts, discussed the path to learning to deal with their parents’ addiction and the bonds they are forming along the way. One pair of teen girls, both just finishing their first year at Bowie State University, has bonded over the experience of carving out a future for themselves and moving beyond their tumultuous upbringings. They have not allowed their shared experience of addiction, domestic violence and abandonment to hold them back but use it as motivation to be successful. Other panels shared their experiences as addicted parents and as caregivers who works to be a resource to those in the community dealing with issues of addiction on both sides. Mario, raised by a single mother who struggled with addiction, told his story and gave his point of view on what can be done to combat the problems of addition in Baltimore City and how his foundation will work to do it. Center for Urban Families President and CEO Joe Jones also spoke and in telling his own story of recovery was an example of how addiction can be overcome.