Local coalitions team up against substance abuse

March 29, 2018 | Payton North
payton@thereminder.com

Hampden, Wilbraham, Longmeadow and Springfield are all taking action to create drug-free communities.
Reminder Publications submitted photo.

HAMPDEN – Area towns including Longmeadow, Springfield, Hampden and Wilbraham are enacting their own versions drug-free community coalitions.  The towns have joined forces to help one another create strong coalitions that urge residents in all towns to work with one another to educate, prevent and provide resources and support regarding substance use disorders.

Hampden and Wilbraham’s Partners for Youth Coalition was funded in October 2014, Springfield’s Stop Access Coalition in Fall 2014, and most recently Longmeadow’s CLOSE Community in September 2017. However, each of the towns groups were founded in some cases years before they were funded.

Partners for Youth Coalition subscribes to the philosophy that “local problems require local solutions,” and that preventing and reducing youth substance use is a collective responsibility.

“We want Hampden and Wilbraham to be towns where youth, parents, schools, businesses, health care professionals, youth-serving agencies, law enforcement, religious and fraternal groups, media, and community leaders collaborate to promote healthy and positive youth development.  Ultimately, we want all of our young people to have the best chance to grow into strong, happy, healthy, productive adults,” a Hampden Wilbraham Partners for Youth Coalition release stated.

According to information provided by Partners for Youth Coalition, research has shown that youth living in Drug Free Communities have experienced reductions in alcohol, tobacco and marijuana use.  Partners for Youth Coalition works with parents to discuss substance use risks and how to communicate with their teens and what they can do to support community-wide prevention activities.   Additionally, they partner with the district schools to support prevention curricula and services.

“A unique feature of the Hampden-Wilbraham Partners for Youth Coalition is its support of Youth Mental Health First Aid training.  Recognizing that the peak age of onset for mental illness is early adolescence, and one out of five youth (20 percent) will experience a mental health disorder, the Coalition offers Youth Mental Health First Aid training to all interested adults, interacting with youth, ages 12 to 25),” the release continued.

This course is taught at no cost to the participants by certified trainers.  Once the training is complete, participants receive a course manual and certificate.  To date, 350 participants have been certified in Youth Mental Health First Aid.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) funded Longmeadow’s CLOSE Community on Sept. 30, 2017.  New Coalition Coordinator of CLOSE Paul McNeil shared that they received $125,000 annually for five years.  This funding will go toward programming, events and education within the organization. McNeil has recently started working with Longmeadow’s CLOSE Community, however he has worked with Greenfield’s division in the past.  

“Massachusetts has a very large number of these coalitions of people wanting what’s best for everyone around us, not just in our own towns and communities. People want to help out in a collaborative way and I really appreciate that,” McNeil said. “We target youth substance use in particular alcohol use, tobacco use, e-cig/vaping is apart of tobacco even though it’s kind of its own separate thing, and opioid and marijuana use.”

CLOSE Community currently has 130 members, however at their meetings there ranges from 15 to 30 individuals in attendance.

“Active coalition members who help with planning and implementing our strategy. All of them are volunteers, caring concerned parents, or parents who have already been affected by substance use, the Police Chief [John Stankiewicz], the Traffic Sergeant [Carl Mazzaferro] is a big supporter and very active member, Chief Dearborn of the Fire Department, the School Department is really active, the Superintendent [Dr. Martin O’Shea], they’re very active in helping,” McNeil shared.

Now, CLOSE is trying to target a new demographic in town: new parents.  This is in an attempt at gaining early involvement and to educate the new parents about healthy practices in the home to prevent potential substance abuse.

Longmeadow Public Schools Substance Abuse Response Coordinator Shelly Warren works in the schools with students to discuss their perspectives and how to better reach out to kids of similar age groups.

“As a part of being a coalition that’s funded you have to have youth representation.  We have eight youth representatives who attend some of our meetings and shed youth perspective. We’re looking to develop campaigns to reach youth better, we’re hoping to take data that youth did in surveys and reflecting healthy choices,” Warren said. “Teenagers often get a bad rap and usually students and parents both think more students are engaging in these activities than actually are.  We’re looking to give that information back to the community and highlight the healthy choices students are making.”

Springfield’s Stop Access Drug Free Communities Coalition is a citywide coalition of residents and organizations managed by the Gandara Center that, similarly to Longmeadow, Hampden and Wilbraham’s coalitions, focuses on promoting youth success by preventing and reducing underage drinking and marijuana use.  Stop Access Drug Free Communities Coalition focuses specifically in the South End, Maple High/Six Corners and Forest Park neighborhoods.

Over the course of 2017, the coalition made 15 presentations to 459 community members at parent and school groups, provided information at 11 community outreach events, appeared on a segment of the Health Matters radio show and was in the Point of View newspaper, provided testimony to the Cannabis Control Commission and conducted an alcohol purchase survey of neighborhood alcohol retail stores.

“We are particularly excited about the achievements of the Youth Advisory Board, ‘Why Risk It!’  The coalition supported 3 of the youth to attend the CADCA (Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America) Mid-Year Conference last summer in Atlanta, where they met youth from all over the country who are working to reduce youth substance use. At the conference they improved their leadership and advocacy skills,” a release provided by Stop Access Drug Free Communities Coalitions stated.

On May 1 at Minnechaug Regional High School Hampden Wilbraham Partners for Youth will be hosting “How to Talk to Kids About Alcohol” by Doc. Rob Robinson.  This program will offer information on strategies to talk to kids and will also feature a question and answer period.

Longmeadow’s CLOSE Community will have a space at the 39th Annual Long Meddowe Days on May 19 where there will be a teen bedroom set up on the green.  The idea is that parents will be able to have a life-size “iSpy” to teach them signs of drug use through the bedroom visual.

“The bedroom has evidence of drug use in it that someone might not know. It’s a little bit of a scavenger hunt,” Warren shared.

Springfield’s Stop Access Drug Free Communities hosts monthly meetings on the third Wednesday of each month from 3:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. For more information regarding meetings, call 733-9024.

For more information about Hampden and Wilbraham’s Partners for Youth, go to HWP4Y.org.  To read up on Longmeadow’s CLOSE Community, go to closecommunity.org.  For Springfield’s Stop Access Drug Free Communities Coalition, head over to their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/StopAccessSpringfieldCoalition/.

Share this: