Dwayne Wade's Mother to Speak on Heroin Epidemic at Will County Forum

The mother of Chicago Bulls star Dwayne Wade will share her own battle with addiction during a March 2 forum on Will County's deadly heroin epidemic in Wilmington.

Pastor Jolinda Wade will be part of the event, set for 6 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday at Wilmington Middle School, 715 S. Joliet St. "Heroin: A beautiful life down a vein" is sponsored by the Wilmington Coalition for a Healthy Community and the offices of Will County Executive Larry Walsh and Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow.

Walsh and Glasgow will also speak at the event, discussing the drug that claimed 76 lives in Will County last year. Will County Coroner Patrick K. O'Neil recently spoke out on the worsening epidemic, saying he believes death toll has risen due to the trafficking of heroin laced with the man-made additive fentanyl, according to the Herald-News.

A pastor at New Creation Binding & Loosing Ministries on Chicago's South Side, Jolinda Wade will talk about her past struggles with heroin and cocaine and her hard road to recovery, according to Walsh's office.

Walsh will discuss the formation of the grassroots HELPS (Heroin Education Leads to Preventative Solutions) organization and a new grant from the State of Illinois that could help Will County reduce deaths due to opiate overdoses. The five-year SAMSHA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) grant allowed the county to hire Dr. Kathleen Burke as its director for substance abuse initiatives to help fight the heroin epidemic. Her duties include expanding the availability of Narcan, a drug that can reverse overdoses and continuing educational efforts across the county and within the school system, while establishing long-term sustainability of the project.

Other speakers at the March 2 event include Will County Judge Ray Nash, local law enforcement officials and physicians who will discuss the dangerous link between the abuse of prescription pain medications and heroin use.

For more information on the forum, call (815) 476-1660 or email the Wilmington Coalition for a Healthy Community at wchc@wilmington-coalition.org. You can also visit the Wilmington Coalition for a Healthy Community on Facebook for details.

Photo of Pastor Jolinda Wade/Via Will County