WEST SPRINGFIELD – The West Springfield CARE Coalition – a volunteer group dedicated to fighting underage alcohol and substance abuse – is hosting a free pancake breakfast in celebration of receiving a competitive federal grant.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) recently awarded the coalition a Drug-Free Communities Support Program grant. The details of the grant extend the coalition $125,000 of federal money every year for the next five years to be used toward furthering its mission statement and hiring a full-time staff.

Members of the CARE Coalition are now gearing up to host a free, community pancake breakfast at the West Springfield High School as a way to celebrate and connect with the community.

“For years, we’ve been completely unfunded with an all-volunteer staff,” said CARE Director of Programming Christine Beaumont. “We typically do a pancake breakfast once a year as a fundraising event. When we found out we had the grant funding, we decided to have a free breakfast as a way to celebrate.”

The CARE Coalition is made up of a group of volunteers from multiple sectors, including municipal, school, youth, law enforcement, business, civic, health care, faith, youth, social service agencies, local government, media and parents. Some of the representatives include, Kristen Stauffer from the Behavioral Health Network, Police Chief Ron Capricornia, Outreach Coordinator for the Mayor’s Office Carly Camposs and Dan D’Alema from the West Springfield Boys and & Girls Club.

Since its inception in 2013, the Coalition’s efforts are focused on creating change, launching a carefully crafted media campaign, offering community forums on underage alcohol and substance abuse and collecting data from youth and parents to increase effectiveness.

The Coalition’s larger mission to provide education, intervention and prevention efforts to address and reduce underage alcohol and substance abuse. While promoting safe, healthy lifestyle choices, the Coalition strives to develop and implement educational initiatives and strategies to reduce teen alcohol and substance abuse. The group also encourages fostering a culture of accountability and responsibility.

“We all know there’s a huge opioid epidemic in our region today, and we know that it’s very important to protect the developing brain in these earlier years,” said the programming director. “If we can delay the onset of first-use and risky behaviors, we can greatly reduce the odds of addiction.”

Massachusetts is currently experiencing an epidemic of opioid-related overdose and death – opioid generally refers to a family of substances that include natural opiates, such as Morphine and Codeine, as well as synthetic and semi-synthetic opioids like Heroin, Oxyopidae and Festally.
According to Mass.gov, these overdoses are driven by underlying chronic disease of opioid addictions or opioid use disorders.         Opioid-related deaths in the state were more than four times higher in 2015 than in 2000. The opioid-related death rate in Massachusetts has surpassed the national average, with an especially sharp rise in the last two years.

In a more recent study done by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, data shows that 67 of the 386 deaths reported for 15 to 24-year-olds between Jan. 2017 to Sept. 2017 were opioid-related. In ages 25 to 34, 281 of the 955 deaths for those months were confirmed to be opioid-related. The study also showed that men were more likely to die from opioid-related deaths than women.

Beaumont told Reminder Publishing the coalition will go undergo training with Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) to learn how to best implement the grant money. The overall goal would bet to engage the community and raise awareness around issues surrounding youth substance abuse, she said.

“We feel very fortunate to have been awarded the funds,” said Beaumont. “We’re in the early stages of the training, and will eventually learn how to implement this grant and hire a full-time coordinator for the coalition.”

“We hope to engage all sectors of the community to understand the problems and needs – in particular, the youth – and train the community with the tools we learn through our training. We want to start by understanding the issues in West Springfield and tailoring what we’ve learned from CADCA to help prevent those risk factors,” she continued.

The pancake breakfast is open to the public and will take place on Oct. 23 between 8:30 a.m. and 11 a.m.  

Free donations will also be accepted.

For more information about the coalition, check out the group's facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/01089cares/?eid=ARC6jGSEOWbQOx5Yw40GQaBy0r1AJTdva67MQvQrfAp307HuvZxY3j-5JiECwNENkhEGKlZ4CXKdCITL.