This Friday, the West Side Heroin/Opioid Task Force and their convener state Rep. La Shawn K. Ford, D-Chicago, will be hosting their 5th Annual International Overdose Awareness Day Community Resource Fair and Outreach Event. The event will bring together over 50 members of the Task Force from Chicago and beyond to call for harm reduction services and programs aimed at reducing overdose deaths. Marking International Overdose Awareness Day, the West Side Heroin/Opioid Task Force will host this community event to commemorate the lives lost to overdose. For the third consecutive year, more than 100,000 people in the United States have died from a fatal drug overdose, with the death rate rising most rapidly among Black and Indigenous communities. This crisis has led to a significant increase in overdose deaths and hospitalizations across the City of Chicago. This event will highlight the impact of the overdose crisis on Chicago’s West Side communities by providing resources to those most affected by this epidemic—people who use drugs, their families, friends and the broader community. For more information, please contact RepFord@LaShawnFord.com or Pastor Fanya Burford-Berry  at lessharm@westsidetaskforce.org or 815-545-0470. The outreach event will take place on Friday, Aug. 30th at 11a.m., to 1p.m., at 5645 W. Corcoran Place, Chicago.