iCube Looks to Expand Awareness with TN Together Website

The Tennessee Tech iCube group is attempting to prevent opioid abuse in partnership with TN Together.

Alexis MacAllister is the coordinator at TTU iCube for the TN Together page.

“TN Together [website] is an interactive resource hub designed to empower each and every citizen to combat opioid abuse in their community. We have taken resources that were already on some government pages,” MacAllister said. “And added them onto our site. But we are trying to be proactive by being interactive and adding over a hundred plus activities to the page.”

MacAllister said iCube’s new TN Together website has a strong presence in Putnam County.

Tennessee Tech iCube partnered with the State of Tennessee to create the TN Together Website. (Photo: TN Together Website)

“We are trying to reach all across Tennessee. We are really happy that during this first year we are going to be going to thirty events all across Tennessee. We want to reach everyone in the community,” MacAllister said. “We want to go talk with school counselors. We want to talk with coalitions because they are actively doing a lot in the communities; we want to see what they have already done.”

MacAllister said Tn Tech iCube started on the website about two years ago.

“We have just recently changed a lot around and officially launched it in September. That is due to Governor Bill Haslam creating the TN Together initiative he has to stop opioid abuse and misuse,” MacAllister said. “So we have changed what we had before as TN Victory to TN Together. And we have merged to where we can start to compile all these existing resources.”

The new TN Together website focuses on proactive measures communities can use, MacAllister said. The TN Together website gives strategies for prevention and lists success stories.

“We are very happy to see the success stories that come in. I think that is a very important part of our site,” Mac Allister said. “Because we do actually have these activities listed but we don’t know that anything is being done unless someone comes and shares their success.”

MacAllister said she hopes more communities reach out and participate in preventative activities.

According to the State of Tennessee, 1,776 people died from an opioid overdose in 2017.