Building sustainable capacity for youth well-being: a collaborative initiative for substance use prevention, education, and community support in medford & malden - the building sustainable youth…

The Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) awarded the City of Medford $1,489,089 on September 30, 2025, under the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention Projects of Regional and National Significance program (CFDA 93.492) to build sustainable capacity for youth substance use prevention in Medford and Malden, Massachusetts.

The project implements multi-tiered prevention strategies targeting middle and high school students, with emphasis on high-risk populations including youth experiencing poverty, high suspension rates, and mental health challenges. Deliverables include evidence-based school curricula (HealthSmart), youth diversion programming (I-Decide), caregiver education workshops, and peer-led substance use awareness campaigns. Prevention coordinators will train school staff, expand youth advisory groups, and conduct strategic outreach targeting vaping reduction and policy enforcement. The initiative integrates with existing local structures—Malden's Opioid Task Force and Medford Connects' Prevention Subcommittee—to ensure sustainability and cross-sector collaboration.

Place of performance is Medford, MA 02155. The project period runs from September 30, 2025, through September 29, 2030. The recipient serves a linguistically and culturally diverse student population; approximately 40.8 percent of Malden residents and 24.2 percent of Medford residents were born outside the United States, with students speaking Portuguese, Spanish, Haitian Creole, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Arabic at home.

Building sustainable capacity for youth well-being: a collaborative initiative for substance use prevention, education, and community support in medford & malden - the building sustainable youth well-being: a collaborative initiative for medford & malden project aims to strengthen local capacity to reduce youth substance use, particularly vaping, through comprehensive, evidence-based prevention strategies. This initiative will enhance school and community systems by increasing education, expanding early intervention programs, and fostering youth-adult connections to mitigate risk factors associated with substance use. The project will be integrated into existing local structures: malden's opioid task force and medford connects' prevention subcommittee, ensuring sustainability and cross-sector collaboration. This initiative will serve middle and high school students in medford and malden, massachusetts, with a specific focus on high-risk populations, including youth experiencing poverty, high suspension rates, and mental health challenges. The population of focus includes middle and high school students in medford and malden, where nearly 40.8% of malden residents and 24.2% of medford residents were born outside the united states. Many students in these communities speak languages other than english at home, including portuguese, spanish, haitian creole, mandarin, cantonese, and arabic. The project will implement multi-tiered prevention strategies, including evidence-based school curricula (healthsmart), youth diversion programming (idecide), caregiver education workshops, and peer-led substance use awareness campaigns. Prevention coordinators will provide training for school staff, expand youth advisory groups, and ensure strategic outreach practices. The initiative will also focus on policy enforcement, including the reduction of vaping-related school incidents through targeted education and strengthened disciplinary alternatives. The project's five overarching goals include: (1) increasing community capacity to prevent substance use, (2) expanding early intervention programs, (3) strengthening caregiver education and support, (4) improving coordination of prevention work through dedicated staffing, and (5) enhancing medford public schools' ability to address high-risk student needs through clinical supervision. By the end of the five-year grant period, the initiative aims to reduce vaping-related school incidents by 40%, ensure at least 90% of referred students complete the idecide diversion program, and increase caregiver education participation by 30%. Each year, the program will directly serve at least 4,000 youth, 4,700 caregivers, and 100 school and community staff through prevention education, intervention services, and training. Over the five-year project period, the initiative will impact more than 12,500 students, 12,000 caregivers, and 500 professionals across both cities. Sustainable funding strategies and evaluation frameworks will ensure the project's long-term impact, embedding prevention efforts within existing municipal and school-based health systems.