By Joshua Robison Jambar Contributor

Since its establishment in 2013, the Centofanti Symposium has served as a bridge between guest speakers from various fields, professions and the Youngstown community. 

Once a year, Youngstown State University hosts a speaker and distinguished scholar to come to campus and speak on a given topic. The Centofanti Symposium has seen speakers such as Ray “Boom Boom” Mancini, former professional boxer, and Dr. Amy Acton, Democratic gubernatorial candidate in Ohio, among others. 

The Centofanti Symposium will welcome filmmaker Nancy Bannon and Judge John Durkin of Mahoning County Court of Common Pleas to speak Oct. 15 at Stambaugh Auditorium to discuss Bannon’s documentary, “If You are Breathing.” 

Bannon and Durkin collaborated on the documentary, which tells the story of opioid addiction through the perspective of the Mahoning County drug court, first responders and other local systems.   

Durkin said “If You are Breathing” shows the tenacity in all who fight against the opioid crisis in Mahoning County.

“It demonstrates the strength and resilience of our community where different key stakeholders can come together to battle the opioid crisis,” Durkin said.

The documentary’s overarching theme is intended to resonate with Youngstown. Jackie LeViseur, director of university events, said the documentary focuses on Youngstown but is not exclusive to it.

“Specifically [‘If You are Breathing’ is] dealing with Youngstown, but it could be any city,” LeViseur said. “It’s dealing with the addiction, but then it’s dealing with its ripple effects. It’s all the people, not just the person suffering from the addiction, but their family and then the first responders who are helping them.” 

Durkin has many years of experience working with cases involving drug abuse and addiction. When Durkin was elected judge in 1997, one of his first actions was to establish a successful drug court in the Mahoning Valley.

Durkin said numerous instances of addicts suffering from substance use is why he established drug court when he ran for judge. 

“I recognized that there were a lot of people who got involved in the criminal justice system, not because they were bad people, but because they suffered from a substance use disorder,” Durkin said. “I heard about drug court around the time that I decided to run for judge.”  

One of the main functions of the Centofanti Symposium is to raise awareness and aid in maintaining the health, social and emotional needs of groups of people. Durkin said watching “If You are Breathing” captures the meaning of the Centofanti Symposium.

“It is so powerful, it is impactful, it is gut-wrenching, it provides hope [and] it demonstrates that recovery works,” Durkin said. “It’s all because of the shared responsibility of the people who are directly involved in, again, from the first responders, to law enforcement, to the court to, the treatment to, the sponsors [and] to the individuals who find recovery.”

Students interested in making proposals for Centofani Symposium speakers can contact LeViseur at jmleviseur@yus.edu.