ARAPAHOE COUNTY, Colo. — The power of one versus the power of many: For Arapahoe County resident Bradley Thompson, finding his community proved to be life-changing.
“I've been on my own since I was 10 years old. I didn't have parents. My mom was an addict as well, so she gave up her parental rights when I was 10, and I was a ward of the judicial system through Jefferson County,” Thompson told Denver7.
As a teenager, Thompson was shuffled from one group home to another across the state. That difficult time led to years of struggling with opioid addiction and living on the streets.
“I literally had to go out of my way to remove myself from the neighborhood that I stayed in, and come down to a different neighborhood that I was uncomfortable, and I found positivity through doing that,” said Thompson. "By the graces of God, [the Hornbuckle Foundation] was there, and just happened to put them in my life right when I needed it.”
For years, the Hornbuckle Foundation has helped people in west Arapahoe County on their recovery and sobriety journey.
“We're taking time to build relationships with people, to show up for people, even when they're not willing to show up for themselves,” said the organization’s director of outreach, Matthew Melsen.
According to Melsen, meeting people where they’re at is what makes all the difference.
“We don't expect people to get it perfectly, but we're going to be there with the resource when they need it, and then we're there for the follow-up afterwards.
Since its launch in 2022, the Arapahoe County Region Nine Opioid Abatement Council has distributed more than $6 million in opioid settlement funds to harm reduction and prevention efforts, as well as to local partners like the Hornbuckle Foundation.
That $6 million stems from several opioid related lawsuits, where pharmaceutical manufacturers and distributors settled with attorneys general in multiple states for their role in the United States opioid epidemic.
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“The number of people who are coming in to see us has definitely increased in the time since we've opened as a new health department, and especially since we've brought on the [harm reduction] mobile unit,” said Arapahoe County Public Health Director Jennifer Ludwig.
Since its formation in 2023, Arapahoe County Public Health’s Harm Reduction program has recorded more than 6,500 visits and served more than 2,000 participants, while distributing more than 150,000 harm reduction resources.
The council's next step is establishing withdrawal management and residential treatment services with its latest round of funding — a total of $4 million.
This time, they’re taking a different approach, looking for community partnerships to help them design the best solutions for the county’s needs.
“What's unique about that is we're saying, ‘Are you qualified to do this? Because we want to partner with you and design a program that helps people come off opioid addiction in a way that is going to support the residents and people that we know are in Arapahoe County,’” said Arapahoe County spokesperson Jill McGranahan. “Help us design a program that we can get more people into a treatment center and hopefully help them recover from addiction.”
It’s an approach that continues to build on the power of many.
“Our team works really hard to build the trust in the community, which then results in word of mouth increasing the volume of people coming to see us,” said Ludwig. “The more people that we see, the more Naloxone we're able to get out, the more lives that we save.”
Thompson is living proof of that — he's now in a sober living program and attending school to become a welder.
“It's these little thoughts that just warm my heart, thinking about these things, knowing that there are communities out there that are trying to help change things,” said Thompson. “And the only way that we're going to change things is if we help change them.”