Lakes Region Substance Abuse Coalition is pleased to announce that several partner organizations are collaborating to offer a free CPR and overdose prevention training event open to the public on Wednesday, Jan. 24, from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Bridgton Alliance Church (368 Harrison Road).

Snow date is Jan. 31.

Pizza dinner and childcare will be provided. Space is limited and registration is required.

Portland Public Health, through a grant award, and in partnership with Bridgton Police Department and United Ambulance Service will be providing the training. People who may find themselves in a position to offer aid in response to an opioid overdose incident will learn simple and effective skills needed to save a life, and leave with naloxone kits and other helpful community resources.

“By training more members of the public we hope to reduce overdose death rates in the Lake Region,” said United Ambulance Service Operations Manager (Bridgton Division) Paul Fillebrown.

In order to make this important training accessible to a variety of people who may be interested, LRSAC is offering a pizza dinner and will provide childcare to those families and persons who may be in the best position to administer compression CPR and naloxone medication in order to prevent death from opioid overdose.

Unfortunately, opioid overdose cases are occurring regularly in the Lake Region and this training aims to help arm more people with proven lifesaving skills and resources to reduce such preventable deaths.

LRSAC is looking for 50 people from various community sectors — business, civic, education, faith, nonprofit, parents, recovery, treatment — anyone who is willing to offer aid to family members, friends and neighbors in communities who may present with symptoms of opioid overdose. Attendees will learn overdose signs and symptoms, as well as protocols for what to do if someone overdoses on opioids.

To register and/or for more information, please contact LRSAC at lrsacoalition@gmail.com or call 803-9987.

LRSAC works to facilitate community action, create meaningful strategic partnerships, and recognize progress toward achieving community-wide prevention, treatment and enforcement goals to help stem the tide of opioid tragedies. You can help! Follow LRSAC on Facebook at LRSACMaine, send an e-mail to lrsacoalition@gmail.com, call 803-9987 or join LRSAC at its monthly meeting the second Thursday of each month from 4:30 to 6 p.m. at Bridgton Municipal Complex, the entrance off Iredale Street.