Church officials at West Hills Community Church say you can’t categorize the heroin and drug issues into a specific age group, gender, or neighborhood.

They’ve seen the problem first hand, so this Sunday they’re holding a town hall to help their community fight back.

“We don’t want them to think that it can’t happen in our community because it is happening,” Pastor David Streets says.

For Pastor Streets the heroin epidemic is personal, “I had my own nephew battle Heroin addiction and he’s been delivered from it.”

For three years his nephew battled addiction, before getting clean.  He also knows other families who have been troubled by it, which is why the church will be holding their first town hall this Sunday, to help folks find support.

“We are a community church and we want to be involved in the community, not just on Sundays,” says David Roman Jr., the director of family ministries for the church.  “We want to help any way we can.”

They will have the Cambria County coroner’s office present, as well as the district attorney’s office, who will talk about charges.  There will be an opportunity for folks to ask questions.

Pastor Streets says there isn’t a road map on how to deal with this issue that is plaguing our communities, so they will also have a support group on-hand for parents or friends of addicts and folks from a recovery center.

“My brother went through it and I watched him with his son.  I told him you need to get help because he’s a pastor and he needed to get help before he was able to help the church.”

Church officials tell us it’s an opportunity to get more people involved in this fight, not just officials and law enforcement, but the entire region. 

The town hall will be Sunday May 15 at 6 p.m. at the West Hills Community Church.  They say everyone is welcome and it is the first part of a town hall series that will address several issues in the area.