An addiction can destroy families as much as it destroys individuals.

Fortunately, there is help out there for families and loved ones of addicts, as was expressed during Monday’s “Night of Hope” sponsored by STEP-Up Tamaqua.Wayne Smith and Layne Hinderliter, co-directors of the HOPE Initiative of Faith Church, Orwigsburg, gave a PowerPoint presentation to the audience at Trinity Founders Hall.Smith explained that the HOPE Initiative is an addiction support group hosted by Faith Church at 6:30 p.m. Thursdays at the church, located at 1168 Centre Turnpike.The acronym HOPE stands for Help for the hurting, Options for the family, Possibilities for the future, Encouragement to the weary.Smith said the idea for the program stemmed from the fact that one of his relatives needed help with addiction.“I started realizing my son was an addict,” Smith said. “I didn’t know where to go.”Smith said he and Hinderliter have taught at Schuylkill Haven High School for the past 25 years, and that she was his “sounding board.”His son, Smith said, has been sober for the past 2½ years.Hinderliter said the group’s mission statement is to provide faith-based support for those touched by addictions.“This is a forever thing,” Hinderliter said.The program is for family members and recovering addicts, Smith said.“For all of us fighting this fight, there’s light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “It’s just so cool that everybody can get together and mesh.”Smith said that while the group deals primarily with drug and alcohol addiction, it deals with addictions of all types.For more information, visit

www.healingwithhope.org, or call the church at 570-366-5131.Also on Monday, a Drug Take Back campaign was held for anyone with outdated or unused drugs to bring their items to Trinity United Church of Christ for proper, safe disposal.