Starting next year, the Joy of Music School will be part of an important new program combatting opioid abuse in our region.

The School got involved—and got $50,000 in funding for the program—through its membership in the Knoxville Area Mentoring Initiative. KAMI, as it’s known, is a creation of the Knoxville Leadership Foundation and includes the YMCA of East Tennessee, Big Brothers and Big Sisters of East Tennessee, the Joy of Music School, and Girls on the Run of Greater Knoxville.

The money will go toward educating our staff and music mentors about the opioid crisis, plus training them to help families who may need assistance. The training will be ongoing, says Dan Myers, vice president of advancement for the Knoxville Leadership Foundation.

It’s all part of a program called Operation Prevention, which is a joint effort of the Drug Enforcement Agency and Discovery Education, a unit of Discovery Communications.

The funding is a federal grant from the Department of Justice’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Securing that grant was a huge, highly competitive undertaking, notes Dan. “Anytime you can get a federal grant,” he adds, “it’s very exciting.”