Hello and welcome to living in the Lehigh Valley, where our focus is your health and wellness.

I'm your host, Brittany Sweeney.

Allentown is only warming station is open for the winter season.

But before the doors were unlocked, the staff went through training on how to help people who need to get out of the elements and into a bed for the night.

Part of that training includes how to engage with someone in active addiction.

Show of hands.

How many people know someone lost her battle with addiction.

People facing active addiction often face stigma not only from their family, friends and the public, but from themselves.

That stigma that I'm worthless keeps people from saying, I want help, right?

It's that sense of failure, the lack of confidence that I can stop using.

You'll get to know me through the program.

Steve Forzato spent 33 years in law enforcement as an undercover officer and was deputy chief of agents under then Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro.

So we're talking about addiction in connection to treatment.

He now spends his life teaching first responders how to do their jobs with more compassion.

I wanted to bring police closer in to understand all of us as human beings, not as addicts or, God forbid, use the word junkie.

We teach people how to motivationally engage people that are struggling, that are living with active addiction.

We're all human beings.

Forzato was the executive director of the Center for Addiction and Recovery Education, known as CARE at Saint Joseph's University.

The retired officer recently spent the evening at the Greater Valley YMCA Allentown Branch, educating the staff on Saint Joe's Phenix Training, a grant funded program created to teach first responders how to interact with people dealing with substance abuse and other addictions.

This is impacting everybody.

The stats show the research shows that 47% of Americans know someone very close to them.

That is either lost her battle with addiction or are losing their battle, whether it's alcohol or drugs.

And so this is impacting everybody.

It's now expanding to community groups.

Forzato wants to offer the program to community groups like the YMCA at no cost.

This incredible program run by executive director Jodi, This incredible program run by executive director Jodi, and they are a group of people that are engaging the public, much like the police.

But without that power, without that badge, their hand is out saying, How can we help the people of Allentown that may be struggling with substance use disorder?

Jodi Perry is the executive director of the Greater Valley YMCA, Allentown Branch.

We're getting ready to open our center, where we will house up to 15 unhoused individuals, provide meals, shelter, warm showers and a place for them to get away from the elements.

This is the sixth year for Allentown only emergency shelter.

It opens at 7:00 every evening and closes at 7:00 in the morning.

Then the unhoused individuals can go to one of several day centers in the area.

And we have really three very distinct populations that come into our to our warming station.

About a third of our population is actually fully employed.

And they have full time jobs.

They have a car, but unfortunately cannot afford housing in the Allentown area.

And then another third or what we call transitional that have either had life experiences that have made them temporarily homeless, perhaps a loss of a job, a car accident, loss of insurance, loss of a loved one that bring them to us.

And then the other third is what you see in the movies are like I like to say that we glamorize this and a lot of teenage training is going to actually focus on those individuals that may be here because of drug or alcohol addictions or mental health issues.

The Phoenix program is being used by the YMCA staff to address people coming into the shelter from different backgrounds.

So you answered the call to serve.

And because of that, you guys get it.

This is not a movie script where we go and we say, Hey, look at that drug addict, look at that alcoholic.

These are real people.

And we get the privilege of dealing with them every single day.

If for some reason you struggle with that.

The people working at the warming station undergo 45 hours of training, including the Phoenix training, ranging from Narcan training, treatment and drug addiction, human trafficking, CPR and first aid basics, as well as standard operating procedures.

There are many times that our folks come in either drunk or high and just being able to understand and meet them where they're at and kind of maybe let them de-escalate themselves or sleep it off and find resources to get them there.

It takes a lot of humility to do this job.

To date, about 7,000 First responders have taken this class, something Forzato is proud to share.

It's important to have law enforcement involved, but it's also important to make sure that law enforcement officers, when they encounter nonviolent offenders, people that are just there to buy instead of sell, that they are equipped with the education to know how to connect those people to treatment.

The YMCA shelter is for men and women, 18 and older.

The Saint Joe's team has been educating first responders on the topic for four years.

They've completed around 350 training events to date.

That will do it for this edition of Living in the Lehigh Valley.

I'm Brittany Sweeney, hoping you stay happy and healthy.