Two school districts in oregon collaborating to increase local community capacity to address youth substance misuse and mental health challenges - the oregon city school district/oregon city…

Two school districts in oregon collaborating to increase local community capacity to address youth substance misuse and mental health challenges - the oregon city school district/oregon city together is partnering with the smaller gladstone school district to reduce and prevent youth substance misuse. The gladstone school district school has been struggling to establish a community prevention coalition for several years. Oregon city together is a 10-year drug free community grant recipient ready to expand its capacity. The adjacent communities share similar youth substance use risk factors as well as common protective factors. The two school districts serve 9,943 students. Our collaborative approach will serve all youth and their families in a catchment area that includes two school districts with both suburban and rural areas. Prioritizing youth ages 9 to 18, underserved youth, latino youth and lgbtqi+ youth, we aspire to foster a more equitable and supportive environment for youth, promoting their mental health well-being and preventing substance misuse. The proposed initiative uses a data-driven systematic approach. The oregon city/gladstone partnership for youth success will increase and strengthen community-level capacity by working with communities that care, a program based out of the university of washington rated as a certified promising program by blueprints for for healthy youth development. IT brings stakeholders together to implement evidence-based practices to reduce risk factors and increase protective factors related to youth substance misuse. The steps in the communities that care process mirror the strategic prevention framework. Oregon is among the worst states in the nation regarding a high rates of drug use and low rates of addiction and mental health treatment services for all ages but especially youth. Voters legalized recreational marijuana in 2014 and approved the decriminalization of small amounts of drugs, like heroin and cocaine, in 2020. The availability of fentanyl in our state and communities has greatly exacerbated the situation. The oregon city/gladstone partnership for youth success will address these challenges on the local community level. Our goals include addressing the normalization of drugs, increasing e youth perception of harm of using substances like marijuana and alcohol, promoting youth mental health and reducing the stigma of asking for help.