Maryland youth rejecting illicit addictive drugs coalition - in 2009, the state of maryland was awarded a strategic prevention framework (SPF) - state incentive grant (SPF-SIG) grant

Worcester county decided not to define the SPF community by a specific geographical region, other than worcester county. From the berlin community perspective, what was heard was the decision of the SPF team was to continue to define youth substance use problems from the perspective of the alcohol related problems of ocean city, the beach resort area of the county. Realizing that the worcester county drug and alcohol council was not going to explore neighborhood level change for youth substance use problems, a catalyst emerge to mobilize key stakeholders in berlin to form a drug free community (DFC) support coalition. In 2018, the berlin prevention works coalition for alcohol and drug-free communities was funded as a DFC coalition. Over the last four years, the coalition has implemented the SPF process to mobilize centers of influence to impact youth substance use prevention and created a community-based prevention infrastructure for continued community level change to prevent youth substance use prevention. The purpose of this proposal is to implement the seven strategies for community level change to address youth marijuana and non-medical prescription drug use/opioids in berlin, maryland to prevent youth substance use. The goals are community collaboration and the reduction of youth substance use. The seven strategies are: provide information, enhance skills, provide support, change access/barriers, change consequences, physical design, and modify/change policies. The proposal will address the following core measures: past 30-day use, perception of risk/harm, parental disapproval of use, and peer disapproval of use. The target population is youth ages 12 to 18 in grades 7TH through 12TH. The core measures will be collected every two years.