Tracy Skaggs knows the pain and struggle of addiction. It’s something that’s hit her hard in a lot of ways.
In 2021, she lost her husband, Jeffrey, to an overdose, and she said she’s lost a lot of others. She has family members still in active addiction.
Skaggs, now 10 years sober and a licensed clinical social worker, also knows about resilience and the power of people coming together to talk about the drug issues she says are very real in her Southern Indiana community.
On Sept. 25, Project Recovery Southern Indiana, Inc., a nonprofit Skaggs founded, is hosting a benefit concert as part of the national Save a Life Day movement.
The overarching goal is to raise money to help expand the services her organization provides to people impacted by addiction.
But Skaggs said she also wants to give families a safe place to grieve, celebrate and know they are supported.
“It is about remembrance,” she said. “It is about rising up above the struggles that us as individuals, as a society and as a nation are going through, and it's about recovery and celebrating the resilience of that.”
The Rumors, a local band, will perform at the event. There will also be food trucks, speakers and community vendors.
People will honor and remember their loved ones with tombstones at the Moment of Truth candlelight memorial tribute. Skaggs said the tombstones, which had to be requested by Sunday, will later be displayed in Washington D.C. as part of the Trail of Truth, a movement to recognize people lost to substance use.
“We talk a lot about overdose, but we talk about it in statistics, instead of actually humanizing,” she said, adding “These are people that are loved. These are families that have a hole in their life and are still mourning and grieving.”
Skaggs has experienced that kind of loss. She’s not afraid of talking about how her husband died.
“He deserves — and every, every human being that was lost in overdose deserves — to be remembered for who they are, not what they did,” she said.
Proceeds from ticket sales will help Project Recovery’s goal to start a mobile harm reduction unit, Skaggs said. That would build on the organization’s existing street outreach and pop-up harm reduction programs.
The group distributes supplies like wound care and hygiene kits, naloxone, fentanyl and xylazine testing strips, and offers peer support services. It also provides some supplies for safer drug use, such as clean tourniquets, when they’re available.
But Project Recovery isn’t one of the state’s certified syringe services programs, so it doesn’t give out needles for more sanitary intravenous drug use. The Clark County Health Department operates a syringe program, but it is facing some funding uncertainties.
Skaggs said Project Recovery reaches people who might lack transportation, or face the stigma that can be present in some other settings. The organization serves areas in Clark and Floyd counties, and is based in Floyd. She said she sees the need there.
“We are impacted here, and I see it all the time when [I’m] out on the street,” she said.
According to provisional data from the Indiana Department of Health’s drug overdose dashboard, Clark County had 45 deaths in 2024, and Floyd had 28. The numbers reflect deaths from any drug.
Skaggs said she anticipates an increasing need for harm reduction services, especially if more people become unhoused due to government cuts to housing assistance.
Lacking stable housing can lead to or exacerbate substance use, she said. Some people use drugs to curb their appetite or handle difficult emotions.
“Unless you've had your belly try to eat your backbone, you have really no idea,” she said.
Skaggs said it’s important for local groups and residents to be united in addressing addiction and its impacts. She sees the upcoming concert as one way to do that.
“We need to gather power together to really make a difference, and all come together as one, as one community…in this fight,” she said. “Because it's not going anywhere.”
Coverage of Southern Indiana is funded, in part, by Samtec Inc., the Hazel & Walter T. Bales Foundation, and the Caesars Foundation of Floyd County.
