ELLY GRIMM
• Leader & Times
After months of work, the Liberal Area Coalition for Families (LACF) is proud to announce its NADEC (National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children) Shop is now live.
As LACF President Sarah Mersdorf-Foreman tells it, the LACF has spent a lot of time with the project.
“The LACF is a recipient of Drug Endangered Children (DEC) funds from the state, and we're part of a larger alliance, the Drug Endangered Children Alliance of Kansas, which is in turn part of a national organization,” Mersdorf-Foreman said. “At the national level, they launched a shop to support some of the efforts the state is doing. We wanted to share that information about those resources being available for everyday use as well as bring more awareness to DEC. We submitted the grant in the summer of 2024 and were awarded the funds starting September 2024. Originally, the grant went through the end of this month, but they allowed us to apply for an extension to continue to the end of September 2026. The focus of this DEC grant is to raise education awareness and education on drug-endangered children, some of the issues they face, and where we can step in and help. One of the projects we've done is make health/hygiene bags available for children coming into the foster care system so when they get here, each child can be offered a fully stocked health/hygiene bag they can take with them to their new home. We've also been able to attend trainings and meet national leaders and talk about what we feel are particular issues both locally and statewide, which has been a huge benefit.”
After all of that work, Mersdorf-Foreman said she is happy to see the shop officially live.
“It's fantastic to see the NADEC shop officially live. This is more of a national initiative, it's not something we started here in Liberal, but I know LACF has been working on this for about a year now getting everything ready, so it's great seeing the fruits of that labor,” Mersdorf-Foreman said. “Local citizens can purchase some of those everyday use items, and the LACF would also be more than happy to hand out bags at upcoming events like health fairs or similar. Again, we really want to help spread the message and more awareness of DEC.”
For those in the community who want to help, Mersdorf-Foreman said it is easy to do.
“There is a link available through the Liberal Area Coalition for Families Facebook page to nationaldec.org, so they can click on that and go from there to our shop at https://bit.ly/nadec-shop,” Mersdorf-Foreman said. “Another way they can show support for what Liberal is doing is to attend our LACF meetings and listen to everything – we meet the first Thursday of every month at 9 a.m. at CrossPoint Church, and the more people we have attend, the more perspectives we have and the more voices we hear so we can make a bigger impact. There is definitely a need to support these children who are in those situations, and this helps further that education and awareness of how we can get involved and be there for them. Another concrete way people could donate items to this is through the LACF food pantry. It's an on-demand food pantry, but beyond the food, we also accept donations of health and hygiene products for families to have access to because if families are having trouble affording food, they're probably also having trouble affording basic health/hygiene products like soap and toilet paper and those types of items.”
Overall, Mersdorf-Foreman said, she is glad to see the project come to fruition.
“Our specific grant will wrap up probably in the next couple months, but it's great being part of a larger state organization working toward the same efforts as we are,” Mersdorf-Foreman said. “We've gotten to meet many great cohorts and other coalitions and hear their perspectives, and I'm sure we'll get even more ideas of how to make this work. Again, if people want to attend LACF meetings, they are more than welcome to do so. Or, if anyone has any questions, they are more than welcome to contact me at (620) 655-2061, and I'll be happy to help.”
