How Presidencies and a Promise Fill an ‘Unmet Need for Hope’

A Vermont history buff leans on former presidents and first ladies to spotlight his family’s holistic substance use disorder treatment model in tribute to his sister who died from an overdose.

Greg Tatro, co-founder of Jenna’s Promise, a substance use disorder recovery community in Johnson, Vermont, is the key note speaker at the final Recovery Reinvented Conference October in 2024 in Bismark, North Dakota. (Photo courtesy of Greg Tatro)

Dry January has passed. Vermont’s Recovery Day was marked on February 19. And last month, Greg Tatro paid tribute to the memory of his sister, Jenna, on the anniversary of her death six years after a fentanyl overdose. Still, his work carries on.

The annual timestamps are reminders for Tatro, co-founder of the treatment organization Jenna’s Promise, that the substance use disorder crisis maintains its grip on the country. But, they also are reminders that the condition is treatable. People can get better. And despite those lost to the disease, lives can be saved and restored.

It’s barriers to treatment, like stigma, that, at times, feel insurmountable. And it’s why Tatro, in his calling to treat those battling addiction, has turned to, perhaps…