Our Mission is to support and love the families who have lost a loved one due to a substance related death. Through much love, without judgment,  we will advocate to remove the shame society has placed upon them.

Build the Banner of Love is a 501(c) 3 Nonprofit Organization that reaches out to the families that have been left behind to grieve the life that has been lost to a substance related death!  There are many programs out there that are helping those that are struggling with addiction. For that we are grateful. But who loves the families that have been affected by it?  Should they be forgotten due to the circumstance they must now be judged for?  We currently provide Grief Support Groups for family members trying to navigate through this horrendous loss.  Build the Banner of Love will not only allow their loved ones to be remembered; it will allow their lives to tell a different story…. YOUR STORY….   They were not just another addict” but the person you loved.  If we reach out our hands and lift up a life that lies in the ashes of this destruction, they will one day reach out theirs to another broken life!

Love, the great paradox.  It is our human nature to both give and receive it.  It is a strong emotion that seems so controversial.  One word, yet two very different responses; great joy and unrelenting pain.  As a Nurse Practitioner in the State of Rhode Island,  having worked in in Emergency Medicine, I see these two definitions collide every time a family member is told their loved one has passed.

With overdose related deaths reaching alarming rates, it is my desire to bring awareness, with your help, by Constructing a Banner of Faces with the goal of a yearly event displaying OUR LOVE and SUPPORT for these broken families.

I believe this will not only allow your loved ones to be remembered, but it will build a strong sense of community among the families that are left to grieve, harbor false guilt, or in some way feel a sense of shame.

Addiction/mental health is a real struggle!  It crosses all races.  It has no preference.  It takes the lives of both wealthy and poor.  Age is NEVER a common denominator in its equation, nor is its victim’s social status.  We need to rally together and speak of its undeniable reality for ALL its victims.

Sadly, when someone hears the word addict, they envision an uneducated, unkempt person lurking in dark alleys attempting to purchase illicit drugs.  It is not! Addiction is our mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, husbands and wives, brothers and sisters and some of our very closest friends.

 

Why reach out to the heart that is broken?  Because that is what love does!