Fayette county partners for success will reach the fayette county, west virginia communities of midland trail and meadow bridge

This project will expand primary prevention resources, capacity and skills in these underserved areas of this rural appalachian county. The main objective will be to reduce cannabis use in youth and young adults ages 12 to 20 years old by addressing the norms regarding cannabis use. We will achieve this by using the evidence-based program "too good for drugs" in schools, increasing community awareness through parent education, and coordinating the efforts to add healthy alternative activities to our underserved areas. The first goal of the project is to decrease youth cannabis use by increasing the perception of harm. The main strategy used to accomplish this will be providing the evidence-based education of "too good for drugs", with fidelity, to 1,000 students annually across five schools to include the entire kindergarten through 9TH grade classes in the underserved areas. The measurable objective will be that by september 2024 there will be an increase of the perception of harm of cannabis reported by middle school youth from 50% to 55% and in high schools a decrease of "ever use cannabis" rates from 12% to 10%, as measured by integrated community engagement (ICE) collaborative surveys. The second goal of the project is to increase protective factors associated with youth substance use through healthy alternative activities in each of the underserved communities. The primary strategy used for this goal will be to provide one weekly summer program and twelve additional activities, one each month of the year, for youth in the underserved areas. The measurable objective will be that by september 2024, the rates of meadow bridge 7TH-12TH grade students who report "less than one outside of school activity per week" will decrease from 23% to 21% and midland trail 7TH-12TH grade students who report "less than one outside of school activity per week" will decrease from 27% to 25% , as measured by ICE collaborative surveys. The estimated number of youth served annually is 836 and over the lifetime of the project is 4,180. The last goal of the project is to increase effectiveness of community partnerships through expanding fayette prevention coalition meetings into underserved areas. The main strategy to accomplish this goal will be by the community-based process of collaborating with key community stakeholders to provide prevention, intervention, treatment, and recovery resources to each underserved area. Holding at least two meetings in each of the underserved areas by september 2024 and ten meetings in the underserved areas over the lifetime of the project will be the measurable objective. Fayette county has made significant progress in implementing primary prevention strategies. This funding will provide more tools to reduce the initiation of substance use in the mentioned communities.