Morris County Sheriff’s Office Corporal Erica Valvano has been awarded the Community Impact Award by New Jersey Women in Law Enforcement, Inc., for her work on the groundbreaking Morris County Sheriff’s Office Hope One mobile substance use recovery and resource vehicle.

Nominated for the honor by Morris County Sheriff James M. Gannon, Corporal Valvano received the award May 24 at the professional organization’s Annual Leadership Training Conference at Monmouth University, which she attended with nine of her female colleagues from the Morris County Sheriff’s Office Bureau of Law Enforcement.

The conference’s theme of “Understanding Addiction” focused on the ongoing opioid crisis, a subject Corporal Valvano has mastered by overseeing Hope One since its launch on April 3, 2017.    

“I am truly proud of Corporal Valvano, and the entire Hope One staff that includes a certified peer recovery specialist and a mental health clinician, for offering substance use services in a compassionate and stigma-free atmosphere,” Sheriff Gannon said.

The 15^th Annual Leadership Training Conference featured speakers who are in recovery, the perspective of law enforcement officers on the opioid crisis, a national certified peer recovery support specialist, and Tony Luke Jr., a grief recovery specialist and founder of #brownandwhite, who spoke on “A Father’s Loss” after losing his son to an overdose.

The award bestowed on Corporal Valvano was one of 11 given out to women in law enforcement based on various achievements. The Community Impact Award recognized Corporal Valvano for demonstrating “devotion to community service as well as improving the conditions within a community,” including contributions to non-profit organizations and volunteer efforts to community causes.

On its twice-weekly trips into communities where the need for substance use services has been documented, Hope One’s staff has made more than 6,800 contacts with individuals in nearly 270 stops in Morris County since April 3, 2017, and trained at least 1,732 people in the use of the overdose-reversing antidote Narcan.    

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