The faces behind opioid addiction are not always what you might expect. “People were saying ‘Opioids aren’t an issue here. That’s something that happens over there. That happens down in the city. That happens to those people,” Patti Constant, Senior Program Manager of the Anoka County Opioid Solutions Initiative (ACOSI) told me in a recent interview with The Phoenix Spirit. In reality, the truth can often be uncomfortably close to home and perhaps lead to life-threatening circumstances. “This could be an elderly relative who forgets how much of their opioid pain medication they have taken,” Patti states—which is why life-saving naloxone was one of the first steps in how Anoka County addressed the opioid problem. The second step was to make sure that people had access to the resources that they needed to help them start the road to recovery.
But how do you do that without having them tune out within the first five minutes of a lecture? “People listen to stories,” Patti explained. “They are not going to hear me lecturing, they are not going to hear me telling them facts and statistics…they are going to remember the story of [someone] who went through this.”
This is how Faces of Hope emerged, a documentary which tells the story of real people who have lived the story—their own personal journeys. And this sobering truth was apparent to me when I visited the Faces of Hope website. I was immediately drawn in by the rawness, the truth, but also the hope from those telling their stories, no matter how the story had ended. So, how did this particular story begin?
The Beginning of the Story
Patti was hired by Anoka County in October 2023 with a mission to look at what was happening in the county (with opioids) and how to utilize the nationwide opioid settlement that they had received. What would be the most significant impact on the community to reduce opioid misuse, overdoses and opioid-related deaths?
Patti said, “I equate it to building the foundation of a house. We wanted to utilize our community partners (our strong base) and work collaboratively with them in a number of ways…We want to get funding out into the community to help support the efforts of what they are doing.”
The first task was to address naloxone education and distribution, an area which is more easily quantified. “We can say we started with five naloxone access points and now we have almost thirty.” Patti summarized. “We can say people didn’t know or have options for where to get it and now we can provide numbers.”
And this is no small achievement; according to The Faces of Hope website, “Naloxone can reverse an opioid overdose and save a life.” Think about the elderly relative who mistakenly took too much opioid pain medication, and you can understand why both the knowledge and resources can save a life.
Building on the Beginning
But having access to naloxone is only part of the story. Prevention is usually better than cure in many instances. Getting people to understand about prevention doesn’t get more personal than a documentary about people who’ve actually lived the experience.
The documentary Faces of Hope came out of a call for a community-based Request for Proposal (RFP) in searching for an effective way to teach people about prevention of opioid misuse.
The more that they can see something that resonates with them or their situation, the more likely that they will find their path [to recovery].
“I really wanted to find a way to say, ‘This can happen to absolutely anybody…this can happen to anyone, anywhere,’” Patti explained. “We want everyone to have the knowledge of the impact that it can have in our community and that it could be their neighbor, their grandparent, their husband, their sister, their daughter. We want everyone to have at least the base level of knowledge.”
As I listened to some of the stories on the Faces of Hope website, it was apparent that this documentary met those goals. Stories such as those of Amy Jones, mother of Chance Lundgren, who tragically died of an overdose: “He was about 19 when he called me and said he was using fentanyl. It was the worst nightmare imagined coming true.” Amy shares her story, as hard as it is “to be sure people hear that message because it’s a way that she can continue to share his fight and struggle,” Patti told me. “Hopefully that will be one less parent who has to go through what they have gone though.”
“If we could start treating substance use like we treat a disease or disorder like diabetes, our community would be much better served. But to do that people have to be able to talk about it and they have to talk about it in a respectful way and in a way that shares that ‘there is hope.’” Patti commented. “And not with this veil of not being able to speak freely or to think that it’s some shame-ridden thing. I really wanted to share the idea, the difference, that community can make…the resources, and the idea of hope was really important.”
The Next Chapter
Patti’s vision to share people’s stories through the Faces of Hope documentary was just realized; the website had its soft launch in November 2025. And it has already seen 1.2K visits without any major marketing. Its official community screening is on February 3rd, 2026, at the Lyric Arts Theater in downtown Anoka. The full documentary is 23 minutes long, although individual stories, at just a few minutes long each, are available on the Faces of Hope website. Patti explained why they had broken the documentary up this way: “Our hope is that people in different support groups, schools, or youth-based programs would be able to use those as little talking points and starting points.”
People who attend the community screening event will also have access to a community panel discussion and be able to ask questions, as well as learning more about the efforts of the project.
If you can’t attend the event, you can still access the Faces of Hope documentary online, as well as finding resources on how to use and access naloxone, and the growing number of resources being added to the website. The resources page helps “people to understand that there is not one set path [to recovery.] It’s taking one step forward in a meaningful way,” Patti adds. Different options might resonate with different people, including the Anoka County Recovery Café, the Substance Use Navigator, and Canvas Health (24-hour support).
Training Opportunity?
In the summer of 2026, medical training will be available for providers who prescribe opioid medication. An 8-hour course in medical education training modules (available as CEs) is currently being created, which will be story-based (like the Faces of Hope documentary) and written at a lay person’s level. Patti explains: “This will help them [medical providers] understand what the things are to look for when you are prescribing [opioids], what things you should know, communicate, and what some of the risks may be.”
How needed are people’s own stories of hope? “Every time a story of hope gets out there that can hopefully create something that somebody else can resonate with and that could maybe make the difference.” Patti confirms. “The more that they can see something that resonates with them or their situation, the more likely that they will find their path [to recovery].”
If you have a story of hope of your own to tell around opioid addiction, you are invited to submit it via the Faces of Hope website here (scroll to the foot of the page and complete the form): https://www.facesofhopeanoka.org/stories
To learn more about the Faces of Hope documentary visit: https://www.facesofhopeanoka.org/. You can also contact the Anoka County Opioid Solutions Initiative (ACOSI) via email at opioids@anokacountymn.gov.
Faces of Hope Documentary: Tuesday, February 3rd, 2026 at 6:30pm (7:00pm panel discussion), at the Lyric Arts Theater in downtown Anoka.
Sharon Chapman is a published author and editor with over seventeen years’ experience. She is the published author of Authentic Aromatherapy (New York: Skyhorse Publishing) and editor in chief for the NAHA Aromatherapy Journal and The Phoenix Spirit. She is also a writing coach. In 2026, she plans to launch her own publishing business. Learn more about her freelance writing, editing, and publishing services.
