Samhsa partnerships for success-warren county - through the proposed project, prevented will build infrastructure to deliver school based programming and early intervention prevention strategies and…

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration awarded Prevented $1,239,089 on September 30, 2025, under the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention Projects of Regional and National Significance program (CFDA 93.492) to build infrastructure for school-based substance use prevention and early intervention in Warren County, Missouri, through September 29, 2030.

Prevented will deliver K–12 school-based education with grade-specific curricula (K–2, 3–5, 6–8, and 9–12) to 4,639 elementary, middle, and high school students across 11 schools in two county school districts. The program targets reduction of underage drinking, tobacco and nicotine use, prescription medication misuse, cannabis use, and delays first alcohol use. Prevented will expand a guided early intervention program for adolescents and families not meeting substance use or opioid use disorder diagnostic criteria but identified as needing services, conduct prevention programs to build resiliency skills, and ramp up prevention educator staffing and curriculum supplies. The recipient will strengthen community coalition infrastructure through technical assistance, prepare a coalition to apply for Drug Free Communities funding, and leverage state funding and work toward tax-based funding sustainability in Warren County.

Prevented partners with Wyman and the Center for Public Health Systems Science to deliver the work. Performance occurs in Warrenton, Missouri.

Samhsa partnerships for success-warren county - through the proposed project, prevented will build infrastructure to deliver school based programming and early intervention prevention strategies and improve community coalition effectiveness in warren county, missouri. The program will serve the general population of warren county in two school districts, targeting both youth and adults to reduce the youth underage drinking, tobacco/nicotine use, prescription medication misuse and cannabis use, and to delay the first use of alcohol. School based programming will specifically target 4,639 elementary, middle, and high school students spread over 11 schools within the county. Prevented will use the SPF to identify and select comprehensive, data-driven substance use prevention strategies, including: school-based education in grades K-12 with specialized curriculum for grades K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12; conduct prevention programs to increase resiliency skills that help students maintain the control and motivation that mitigate the risk factors that surround them; expand the guided early intervention program to serve adolescents (and their families) not meeting SUD/OUD diagnostic criteria but who have been identified as needing services; providing technical assistance to strengthen prevention capacity/infrastructure at the community level; prepare a coalition to apply for drug free communities funding; leverage state funding for technical assistance; continue to work towards tax-based funding in the targeted county; ramp-up prevention educator staff for school-based education programming in the target county and purchasing additional curriculum delivery supplies. The overall goal is to increase the capacity for community prevention activities. To make progress toward this goal, prevented, along with partners wyman and the center for public health systems science, will engage in school-based education and community coalition infrastructure building with the following six objectives: (1) increase student counts for the school-based education component from the baseline of 635 students by 10% in year one and by 20% annually in years 2-5. (2) increase student understanding of education curriculum components by at least 40-75%, depending on the particular curriculum and grade level. (3) increase referrals to the guided program achieving and maintaining 30 students each year of the grant period. (4) increase community coalition capacity to implement the strategic prevention framework through technical assistance. (5) increase coalition community partners and members/volunteers by 10-20% annually as appropriate for each coalition from a baseline established at the time of award. (6) by the end of the grant period, the community coalition will have consistent representation from all 12 community sectors required by the DFC program and a recruitment/succession plan for each sector.