LEBANON, Tenn. (WKRN) — One homeless outreach nonprofit is filling a need beyond providing a hot meal.

Volunteers with All For Him Ministry in Lebanon are now fully equipped to administer Narcan.

All For Him Ministry’s outreach coordinator, Mandy Poe, told News 2 that the ministry is not only helping the unhoused community, but also herself post-addiction.    

“I’ve been dealing with addiction since I was 18 years old, and I just turned 41, so most of my adult life,” said Poe. “I broke my spine in a car accident, so I started on pills when I was 18, so that is when the addiction started.”

She’s now two years sober.

It’s a similar narrative volunteers with All For Him Ministry hear when working with people who are unhoused.  

“We are seeing a lot of overdoses out here, a lot of drug use out here,” said Heather Young, founder and president of All For Him Ministry.

“We’ve had to use Narcan underneath the pedestrian bridge one Sunday,” Poe said.   

This epidemic is growing alongside the unhoused population.  

“As of March [2023], we have served 4,598 people, and that’s throughout all of Nashville and Wilson County,” Young said.

On Tuesday, volunteers with All For Him Ministry were trained on how to identify when someone is overdosing and how to administer Narcan.  

“I never want to feel those feelings again, so I want to help people get out of this…bring awareness to these drugs. I’m living breathing proof that if I can do it, you can do it.”

According to the most recent data from the Tennessee Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, there were 63 reported overdose deaths in Wilson County in 2021.   

According to statistics, about one in five Wilson County residents were prescribed opioids for pain that year.