ROCKLAND — The Rockland Public Library and Midcoast Women present an evening of discussion, Thursday, June 22, at 6 p.m. This event is free and open to all.

Mothers are the emotional backbones of the family, according to Rockland Public Library, in a news release. They provide the holding place for everyone’s feelings and do their best to keep us from being hurt. But when the opioid crisis takes up residence in the family, what's a mother to do?

Midcoast Women provides opportunities for area women of all ages, including trans women and genderqueer women, to find and strengthen their individual and collective voices. The talk will feature the following speakers from Midcoast Women:

Courtney Gary-Allen is the Organizing Director for the Maine Recovery Advocacy Project and has helped to pass countless pieces of legislation focused on addressing the opioid crisis, including the strongest Good Samaritan Law in the nation. Before this work, Gary-Allen interned in Senator King's DC office and helped open the first recovery residences in community. She currently serves as an At-Large City Councilor for the City of Augusta, and is a person in long-term recovery from substance use.

Liesha Petrovich, MHEd, is a writer, teacher, advocate and business owner living in Western Maine. After 25 years of running a small martial arts business, Petrovich happily switched gears to focus on helping Western Maine's girls and women to find their voices and walk safely anywhere they want in this world. Petrovich and her partner, Martin, are the parents of a daughter and two rescue pups.

Molly Feeney works as the Chief Program Officer at Knox County Homeless Coalition, the only dedicated homeless services organization with outreach throughout Knox, Waldo, and parts of northern Lincoln County – helping families achieve sustainable independence and a hopeful future. Feeney graduated from University of Maine, earning an undergraduate degree in political science and a graduate degree in education. She is currently based in Morrill.

Betsy Sweet is an activist, political organizer, small business owner and mother. Sweet's lifelong work has been to secure the rights of women and their families and to empower all women to have our voice heard, be represented at the tables of power, and to create and impact policy to help women, girls and families thrive. A former director of the Maine Women's Lobby and the Maine Commission for Women, as well as a small business owner, Sweet has spent her career advocating for people with disabilities, the elderly, women, children, low-income individuals and families, and the environment and natural resources. In 2009, EqualityMaine, the state's leading LGBT rights organization, gave her the lifetime achievement award for 25 years of her efforts. Reported in 2018, she was one of the named victims of sexual harassment in the Maine statehouse dating back to 1983 in the early days of her career.

This event will take place in the library’s Community Room and will be simultaneously streamed over Zoom; the Rockland Public Library is located at 80 Union Street. For more information, please email elewis@rocklandmaine. To attend via Zoom, preregistration is required: tinyurl.com/3w8nrwjm