If you care about drug use in your county (wherever you live) or even if you just care about your community, then you’ll want to read this email to the end. We will be providing email addresses, phone numbers, and a meeting you can attend to express your concerns about numerous issues. If you’re from a different county or state, we urge you to call your local community mental health office to see if there are similar projects or meetings taking place in your area. Get informed and take action!
Many of you reading this may be unaware of the Red Project, as I was until recently concerned citizens from White Cloud got my attention. So, I went up to see for myself what their protest was all about.
Red Project headquarters is based in Grand Rapids and has an outreach by way of sending informational personnel out to local communities throughout the greater West Michigan area.
A brief look at their website https://redproject.org/ might lead you to believe that the people affiliated with the Red Project are doing a labor that improves life. Sadly, that is not true!
As I walked over to the mobile display in White Cloud (June 9), I spoke with the Executive Director of Red Project; I was mildly surprised how he listened, though he weakly defended his cause. If there weren’t so much at stake, I would have just blown this off, but he is offering supplies that aggressively, though subtly, foster life-threatening, destructive lifestyles. And, at the same time, upping the ante by bringing a sense of normalization of these lifestyles (while denying their inherent dangers by blaming others) to the community, the children of the community, and the ones caught up in these life-threatening, destructive lifestyles.
As much as I am troubled by Stephen (the director) and the Red Project, I am much more alarmed/concerned about the agencies and the individuals that lead them for endorsing and empowering the insidious destructive influence and presence of the Red Project in our local communities and in Newaygo County. Let me explain.
Free condom disseminations. One of their posters placed in White Cloud reads:
FREE SAFER SEX SUPPLIES. Ask a staff member for lube and condoms in all sizes. The Red Project website boasts of distributing over 51,590 condoms so far this year!
As one White Cloud parent stated: Kids walking from school or from the store saw this sign. Someone might say, “No big deal.” It is a big deal in a culture that is losing its way. It legitimizes illicit, unsafe sex in the eyes of the increasing number of kids and adults who have little to no moral grounding. I say this in sadness, not to judge but to discern the difference between what is healthy and what is not.
Another slogan that is strongly invoked by the Red Project is: CRACK PIPES ARE HARM REDUCTION. How can that be so? What good does that do? Just come to the Red Project and pick up your free crack pipe to replace your old crack pipe?
Here’s what https://www.addict-help.com/crack-pipes/ says about crack pipes: Most crack cocaine users use a pipe to smoke rocks of this drug. The smoke brings an intense, fleeting, euphoric high. A crack pipe’s anatomy is similar to other types of smoking pipes used for marijuana or methamphetamine. Pipes are glass, metal, or even Pyrex…
What message does this send to the community? Cheap standards – just keep doing what you’re doing we have your back. Is that really the message we want to send? Shouldn’t we be teaching them the importance (for themselves, their community, and their families) to make better choices instead of encouraging them in self-destructive behavior?
Next. Free syringes and safer use supplies are provided anonymously in a welcoming environment – is what their link says. Our community watchmen (officials) open the gates of their (our) communities to bogus “compassionate supplies” that enable the struggling drug addict to once again have a quick temporary fix that will keep him on the same pathway of self-destructive patterns instead of getting real help in his/her desperation. So far this year, the Red Project has “helped” people get 1,016,034 “safer” quick fixes by giving out that many free syringes. Is this really compassionate? Isn’t it more compassionate to teach that we must be responsible for our actions and that such lifestyles include inherent risks regardless of the “support” one might feel from the community?
PrEP Services: PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) is a medicine approved by the FDA; people at risk for HIV take it to prevent HIV from sex or injection drug use. When taken as prescribed, PrEP is highly effective for preventing HIV.
PrEP is used by people without HIV who are at risk of being exposed to HIV through sex or injection drug use. [https://hivinfo.nih.gov/hiv-source/hiv-prevention/preppep] Once again a quick temporary fix (maybe?) that will help keep them on the same pathway of self-destructive patterns instead of getting real, long-term help in their desperation. If this and the other supplies are so helpful why did doctors and nurses in Fremont urge Tamarac and other locals to withdraw their support from Red Project in their community?
Overdose Resources: Naloxone (Narcan®) saves lives – this medication rescues friends and family from an opioid overdose. The Red Project encourages people to “Visit us to receive a free Naloxone Rescue Kit.”
Hopefully you don’t have a friend, loved one, or acquaintance that would be in need of this; but if you do, perhaps in all fairness, it would be good to have a free rescue kit handy. I say that with great sadness.
This is what The Red Project says about itself: The Red Project builds a better community. Red Project is a safe place where people can exercise their right to explore better health choices related to sexual activity and drug use without judgment and fear. We provide health resources, prevent the spread of disease, and save lives.
What about their values? It is interesting that on their webpage the words they use are, “Still under construction.” And, that’s a problem! One can get a good idea of their values by following the money. This will be seen at the end of the article.
Red Project was dismissed in Fremont months ago! You need to know – there are community professionals that said NO to Red Project. I know from reliable sources that there were doctors and nurses who communicated to Fremont’s Tamarac, a fitness and health facility, that the Red Project, enabling people in their patterns of unhealthy life style choices – in some cases for many years, was not a good fit for Tamarac. It was the influential voices of these Fremont doctors and nurses, and presumably others, that resulted in a chain reaction of positive decisionmakers that resulted in Tamarac and others to discontinue making their premises available to the Red Project. Point: We are not alone in our many concerns regarding the Red Project.
So why is it acceptable for those making decisions to say that it is appropriate for White Cloud, but not Fremont?
Here is a response from the Fremont Area Community Foundation to an email expressing concern.
Thank you for sharing your concerns with us. Fremont Area Community Foundation funds were not used for the harm reduction project in Newaygo County. The project is part of the Statewide Michigan Harm Reduction Project, funding for which was provided by Vital Strategies.
In the interest of supporting a multi-faceted response to the opioid drug problem in our county, including keeping drug users safe from overdosing, Fremont Area Community Foundation served as the fiduciary for the grant. The funds have been supporting the partnership between Newaygo County Mental Health (CMH) and the Red Project.
If you have further questions or concerns about that partnership I recommend you contact Carol Mills, executive director at CMH. I let her know you may have questions about the program.
Thank you again for your email, and if you have any additional concerns for me please give me a call at 231-924-76 01.
Best regards,
Shelly Kasprzycki
President and CEO
Fremont Area Community Foundation
231-924-5350
A question arises. Shelly Kasprzycki writes that Fremont Area Community Foundation funds were not used for the harm reduction project in Newaygo County. The project is part of the Statewide Michigan Harm Reduction Project, funding for which was provided by Vital Strategies. Further she states: Fremont Area Community Foundation served as the fiduciary for the grant. The funds have been supporting the partnership between Newaygo County Mental Health (CMH) and the Red Project. Is this to imply that the Fremont Area Foundation holds no responsibility for bringing the Red Project or Vital Strategies into our communities?
Fiduciary: Typically, a fiduciary prudently takes care of money or other assets for another person. Another party entrusts them to hold the funds. Also, relating to a duty of acting in good faith with regard to the interests of another.
You’ll notice that “Vital Strategies” is funding “Red Project.” I encourage you to take a look around at https://www.vitalstrategies.org/. There are several things that should raise some “Red” flags as well as some questions. Allow me to share just a few.
When you go to their website, you’re greeted with this bold, oversized message: “At Vital Strategies, we’re reimagining public health, working for a world where everyone, everywhere is protected by equitable and effective public health systems.” They also claim, “We collaborate with governments, change makers, and leading researchers to move policy and people toward sustainable progress in global health.” First, I notice they are globalists in nature, complete with the tag words “equitable” and “sustainable.” This American Decency alert you just read should also make one ask how such programs like Red Project is part of an “effective public health system.” (Yet, it fits in with their global “healthy cities” goals – #13 – found here.)
Vital Strategies has many irons in the fire; their biggest push seems to be against tobacco. Hmm, educate against the dangers of tobacco and tax cigarettes but provide free supplies to smoke crack, have illicit and LGBTQ sex, inject oneself with drugs, yet not provide education to their dangers. Instead, claiming the need for “a safe place where people can exercise their right to explore better health choices related to sexual activity and drug use without judgment and fear.” Something doesn’t add up.
Apparently, Vital Strategies doesn’t consider “everyone, everywhere” to include the unborn. From their “Press Room” on 6-24-22, “U.S. Supreme Court’s Overturn of Roe Is a Tragic Setback for Health, Rights.”
There are many things to be aware of and concerned about on the Vital Strategies website; including, but not limited to, their desire to counting every single human life, even in remote areas. One needn’t even be terribly observant to recognize that these globalists desire to control every aspect of our lives, cradle to grave.
When one follows the money, one will see what is trying to get into our communities through the back door. Much of what Vital Strategies claims to desire contradicts our Constitution, our national sovereignty, and the well-being of our fellow citizens in order to get their foot in the door, so to speak.
We urge you to take action and to be respectful in these interactions:
Research these things for yourself, make others aware, and – in addition to the above – speak to your local, state, and national representatives. The most dangerous enemies are those who hold out a helping hand; be sure to see what the other hand holds!
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