Columbus Area, Inc. Bell Center Africentric Therapeutic Community presents The Stage Play – Invisible Scars

Apr 7, 2009

Columbus Area, Inc. Bell Center Africentric Therapeutic Community, an ADAMH agency, in partnership with King Penn Productions announces the stage play “The Stage Play - Invisible Scars”. The play will be held at the King Arts Complex in the Phantom Theatre located at 867 Mount Vernon Avenue in Columbus, on April 30, at 7:30 p.m.

The Stage Play – Invisible Scars explores issues of gang affiliation, incarceration, and addiction that have affected today’s youth. “Our goal is to bring awareness to areas of everyday struggles, providing hope in the ability to change in spite of past mistakes, and teaching,” explained Reginald Penn, Founder of King Penn Productions.

Ajamu Brown, ADAMH Alcohol and Drug Network Services Manager and winner of the 2009 Columbus Area, Inc. Big Brother Award, has a long standing relationship with the Bell Center and other Columbus Area Inc. programs. He knows the importance and need for this play in the community.

“Young men in our communities like to meet individuals that can relate to their everyday struggles, they feel like they can identify with what the characters in the play are going through. It also helps that most of the actors in this play have seen hard times and are now recovering themselves, so the young men who see this [play] can really connect with the play’s message and the people in it,” Brown says.

“The play addresses the need to educate young males within our urban communities against becoming victims of their environment, showing them a different perspective,” says Penn. “So many kids today are convinced there are no opportunities for them to live a better life, but there is a way. To live a life filled with addiction and destruction is not OK.”

The characters portrayed in this play and the play’s intended message relate directly with the principles and tools taught through Columbus Area, Inc.’s Bell Center Africentric Therapeutic Community. The Bell Center provides treatment though group process, individual sessions, and meetings. Its mission is to empower individuals with chemical dependency to live a drug-free lifestyle by providing a continuum of treatment with the objective of sustaining “right-living” through Africentric principles.

Penn, a former member of the Bell Center Africentric Therapeutic Community, knows the importance of living a healthy life. “Growing up, I did not have positive role-models. I did not know there was a better way to live, and I thought this was it, this life is my only option.” Penn found help within the ADAMH system of care and knows there are many opportunities available for a better life. With the help of the Bell Center, Penn have been able to share his knowledge with the community by using his plays.

For more information about the play or to purchase tickets, please contact Reginald Penn at (614) 537-1782.

Columbus Area Inc. services a broad spectrum of community residents including adults, senior citizens, and persons with severe mental illness, youth and their families. Services includes traditional case management, intensive outreach case management via community treatment teams, counseling, group therapy, psycho-social rehabilitation/vocational services, prevention services for youth, forensic assessment, adult residential and outpatient alcohol, drug, mental health and tobacco treatment, medication clinic and drug prevention services.

ADAMH is Franklin County’s authority for planning, funding and evaluating mental health, alcohol and drug abuse prevention and treatment services. ADAMH-funded services are provided by a local network of more than 40 not-for-profit providers and offered on a sliding-fee scale, making them affordable for any county resident, regardless of income. For more information, please visit www.adamhfranklin.org.

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Press Contacts
Alisha Wilkes or Aimee Shadwick
Phone: (614) 222-3767