Description: This workshop will discuss current drugs trends, social and economic impacts of drug use, and the science behind substance addiction. You will leave with valuable insights into the pressing issues affecting communities worldwide. Over the past decades, discriminatory policies and laws continue to disproportionately impact BIPOC populations. This webinar aims to highlight these challenges and look at the factors driving them currently we see of some ethnicities more than others are oppressed, mentally, spiritually, financially, and physically.   This webinar will offer solutions, such as, trauma resilience, relapse prevention and lived experience stories to inform participants that people with substance abuse disorders can change. The presenter's goal is to leave you with a deeper understanding of the critical need for informed solutions that can help alleviate some of these challenges. No matter 'what is out there' in 2025, there is hope and healing beyond addiction. 

Learning Objectives:

• Gain awareness of the drugs most heavily impacting our communities in 2025 and how drug use impacts society.
• Explain how generational and historical trauma impact prevalence and criminalization of drug use.
• Learn from a voice with lived expertise, stories, case examples, and more (including growing up in the 53206 zip code).
• Leverage effective treatment strategies and resources to support recovery and healing. 

Presenter Information: Clem Richardson has over 21 years of professional experience providing workshops, group facilitation, and prevention education via alternative schools, church groups, the Project RETURN reentry program, drug treatment facilities, and gang prevention counseling. He has a nontraditional approach to counseling, using various techniques to engage others. Mr. Richardson has 20 years of lived experience related to drug addiction, gang affiliation, and street crimes.

Mr. Richardson is a recipient of many prestigious awards, including an Outstanding Leadership Certificate of Appreciation for Prison Reentry, a Community Impact Award Rising Star, the Black Excellence Award by the Milwaukee Times, the Lifetime Achievement Award from Project RETURN, and the Community Leadership award from It Takes a Village.

He has five children and seven grandchildren. He enjoys reading, traveling, weight training and family time. Mr. Richardson is author book entitled “White Keys/Black Lives. Clem Richardson is the Founder and Lead Pastor of Kingdom Empowered Ministries in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, alongside his wife and co-founder Pastor Barbara Richardson.