Jennifer Biddinger joined the Attorney General’s Office in late 2011 to support Ohioans determined to fight drugs in their communities. Demand for the assistance continues to grow, leading to plans to expand outreach capabilities.
On how the office can assist communities
My role is to bring people together and help them along. I can connect them with the services available within or outside our office, share information about what has worked elsewhere, raise awareness about resources. I assist however I can, and how that plays out varies by community. How can they get the word out to parents? Do they need help identifying and applying for grants? They define what they need, and I try to help them get it.
On working with local organizations
I work with groups that are very passionate about the issue, often led by parents who have suffered a loss. They identify who needs to be in the room to make a difference. It’s a broad range of people — law enforcement, mental health professionals, support groups. We invite them to a meeting and develop a plan very specific to that community. I try to bring hope, passion, and awareness. They need to know we can fix this and see steps in the path to getting there.
On the importance of grassroots efforts
Certain things can only happen at a grassroots level. What really holds us back is stigma and shame. When people start talking and understanding that it can be them, how easy it is for this to happen, that it’s a disease and it’s happening to people of all ages, they are much more compelled to action. If people start to speak up and rally others, that’s really the first step in moving forward. People saying, “I’m going to stand up and say, ‘My child.’” And someone else will say, “My child too.” Then someone else will say, “My mother.” And then pretty soon, people see they are not alone, and they rally together to fix it.
On key ingredients of local efforts
In one word? Passion. You have to have passion and determination and the right collection of people who want to make a difference. I think some people would say money and resources, but that’s really not it. People think it’s complex. I don’t think so. I think that people can do more than they think they can just by putting the time and determination in. And by having a voice and using it. Communication is vital. Most communities have quite a bit going on, but the parties may not be connected. For instance, in one city, we listed a goal of having drug drop boxes in every police station. At the next meeting, someone said, “We don’t need to list that because we have drug drop boxes in every police station.” So we changed it to raising awareness about the drop boxes. Law enforcement can assist by looking for local groups fighting this problem and joining them. Just the fact that a group feels supported by law enforcement and others in the justice system is significant.
On the need for understanding
A colleague of mine ran into a friend and asked him what he was doing for the holidays. The man said only his immediate family would be together because his son is a heroin addict and their extended family is no longer including them in get-togethers and friends weren’t talking to them anymore. The whole family was shunned. If a child had cancer, friends and family would bring food and flowers. This family is suffering and needs help, too. There’s so much judgment about it, and it’s such an easy addiction. It’s pretty much immediate.
On how communities can begin to heal
One of my friend’s sons died of a heroin overdose, and his brother was pretty young. One of the things he really missed was throwing the football around with his brother. Well, as a neighbor, stop by and say, “Hey, you want to throw the ball around?” Simple. We know siblings are so easily caught up in this, and they themselves are at risk of addiction. Maybe just by throwing the football with the kid, he’ll have a moment when he’s not thinking about how much he misses his brother.
We now see communities that are beginning to recover, which is really extraordinary. If you ask them how, they will say it’s because they tore down the silos, they came together as a community — all of them — and worked to fix it. It’s so broad and so horrible that it’s going to take that. We need the voices, and we need people to understand how frightening it is, how prevalent it is, and how it could be their child.
Take Portsmouth, which at one point had nine pill mills. People considered it the epicenter of the prescription pill problem. That’s not who they are. They are this town of remarkable people, who through determination said, “We’re going to fix this.” It’s now becoming a recovery community. A few months ago, they held a recovery rally; people were signing a book and logging their hours of recovery — something like 32,000 hours of recovery. To be standing in this park with all these people in recovery was astonishing to me and so hopeful. What our office can do is see that, learn how it happened, and then share it with other communities. We can have that conversation about what is working so communities aren’t starting from scratch.
The Jennifer Biddinger File
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Past Positions: Biddinger worked in sales, management, and marketing for 20 years.
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Community involvement: She spearheaded the REACT drug-prevention video in Union County, which Attorney General Mike DeWine hired her to replicate elsewhere, and led a successful Marysville school levy campaign.
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Education: She holds two psychology degrees, a bachelor’s from Richard Stockton State College and a master’s from the University of Phoenix.
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Family: She and her husband, Kyle, have two sons, 16 and 14.
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Favorite quote: “One person can make a difference, and everyone should try.” — John F. Kennedy
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Contact: 614-644-5808 or Jennifer.Biddinger@OhioAttorneyGeneral.gov.