Pastor Paul Eknes-Tucker is the senior pastor at Pilgrim Church in Birmingham’s Lakeview neighborhood. He says that people in the area may not realize how relevant addiction and overdose resources may be to their community.
“But we've had two people die in our parking lot since I have been pastor here,” he said.
The opioid epidemic has claimed the lives of approximately 806,000 people nationwide from 1999-2023, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Public health officials, law enforcement and policy makers have been working for decades to curb addiction, overdoses and deaths.
Another group involved in the fight are clergy. Through a program from the Clinton Foundation, clergy in Birmingham have participated in formal training to share resources to address overdoses in their local communities.
They learned about overdose prevention — particularly the use of naloxone or Narcan, a drug that can reverse opioid overdoses.
One of those trainings took place at Pilgrim Church on a recent Saturday. While attendees ate breakfast and waited for the presentation, they shared why they came out this morning.
Jeff Watwood had heard of Narcan, mostly from television. He’s at the event because he’s been impacted by addiction — members of his family have been addicted to substances.
“Now, fortunately, all my family have recovered and moved on. But in the unfortunate instance where I'm faced with that [overdose], I want to know how to be able to help someone else,” Watwood said.
According to the Jefferson County Coroner/Medical Examiner’s Office, opioid overdose deaths have been on the decline. Last year, 153 people died from overdoses in Jefferson County compared to 264 the year prior. Although overdose deaths are down, Scott Melton, the presenter at the workshop and a registered nurse with the Jefferson County Department of Health said it’s not the full story.
”People are still overdosing, but they're not dying. I really believe it's because of Narcan,” Melton said.
Still, Jefferson County has ground to make up compared to the state and the nation. Numbers from the CDC show the rate of unintentional deaths from overdoses between 2024 and 2025 in Jefferson County was 31.8 per 100,000 people. That’s much more than the state of Alabama’s 17.7 death rate as well as the national rate of 19.3.
The Clinton Foundation’s Empowering Faith Leaders program began in 2018. It involves monthly training over the course of nine months, where participants gain tools to address addiction and overdoses with strategies rooted in science and compassion.
“We believe that faith leaders have a hugely important role in shattering the stigma of addiction,” Megan Affrunti, one of the program's directors, said. “They're so influential. They're so powerful. They can reach people in communities that other leaders can't, and we try to work with them to really leverage their positions to make a difference in their communities when it comes to these issues.”
Eknes-Tucker said plenty of people wouldn’t expect to find Narcan in a church, but he finds it quite Christian to have it in his.
“I'm hoping that other congregations will do the same kind of thing, because for most of us, being a Christian is about helping people find their best lives. And so if you could save somebody from dying, why wouldn't you do that?” Eknes-Tucker said.
To learn more about naloxone training or where you can find Narcan throughout the city, visit the Jefferson County Department of Health website.
Vahini Shori is a Report for America corps member covering faith and culture for WBHM.
This reporting is supported by WBHM’s Local Journalism Innovation Fund. Find out more about the fund and how to donate here.
