Claire Fiddian-Green is the President & CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. In Indianapolis, tobacco retail outlets are concentrated in areas with high poverty, low levels of education, and high levels of poor mental health. These are also the areas where smoking rates are higher, on average and among pregnant women specifically. These are the key findings from a report issued yesterday by The Polis Center at IUPUI entitled: “Unequal Access: Tobacco Retail in the Indianapolis Metro Area.” This is troubling news for a city where the adult smoking rate – at about 21% – is already well above the national average. Statewide, there are additional indicators of concern […]

Claire Fiddian-Green is the President & CEO of the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation. In 2014, more than 1,100 Hoosiers died as a result of drug poisoning – greater than the number of fatalities from car accidents – with prescription opioid misuse and heroin use responsible for a majority of these deaths. In response to the growing crisis, in 2015 the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation established a goal of reducing opioid use disorder, including prescription drug misuse and heroin use. The number of opioid-related overdose deaths continued to climb nationwide in the following years, reaching upwards of 2,400 deaths in Indiana alone. In 2017, the opioid crisis was formally declared a […]