Original Release Date: February 12, 2021
In episode four of the 2021 Illicit Substance Use Response season, Just Science sat down with Bonnie Dunn, Co-Director of the West Virginia Healthy Grandfamilies Project, to discuss a free initiative that provides information and resources to grandparents who are raising one or more of their grandchildren.
Children can be deeply impacted if their parent or parents are suffering with substance use disorder, which could ultimately mean they need to be placed into alternative family structures. As a product of a grandparent-led household, Bonnie Dunn is keenly aware of the needs and value of these alternative family structures. Now, she serves as the Co-Director of the West Virginia Healthy Grandfamilies Project. Listen along as discusses the Healthy Grandfamilies Project, kinship care, and the need for similar programs in this episode of Just Science.
This season is in collaboration with the Bureau of Justice Assistance Comprehensive Opioid, Stimulant, and Substance Use Program (COSSUP) funding to respond to illicit substance use and misuse in order to reduce overdose deaths, promote public safety, and support access to services.
This episode of Just Science is funded by the National Institute of Justice’s Forensic Technology Center of Excellence [Award 2016-MU-BX-K110].
View or download the episode transcript here:
Transcript
Guest Biography
Bonnie Dunn, M.S., WVSU Extension Specialist, was raised by her maternal grandparents in Rand, WV, a little town in eastern Kanawha County where she was educated in the public school system. She received a BS in Education - Comprehensive Vocational Home Economics from West Virginia State (College) University and an MS in Vocational Education /Minor Adult Education from Marshall University. Her career spans 48 years in the field of education and her life-long passion has been teaching. She has worked as a middle-school teacher, teacher-educator, vocational evaluator, an Extension Agent, statewide coordinator for the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission, and finally returning to her roots at West Virginia State University as an Extension Specialist for Family and Consumer Sciences and last but not least the Statewide Specialist for the WVSU Healthy Grandfamilies Program and Co-Director of the Center for Health Grandfamilies.
