The newfound coalition for youth's mission is to build collaborative partnerships, working with our community to prevent and reduce youth substance misuse and increase promising futures. - newfound…

The newfound coalition for youth's mission is to build collaborative partnerships, working with our community to prevent and reduce youth substance misuse and increase promising futures. - newfound area school district (nasd), is submitting an application for the drug-free communities support program (DFC). Nasd is a regional school district with four elementary schools (grades k-5 with one atypical preschool program), a regional middle school (grades 6-8) and a regional high school (grades 9-12). The district comprises the towns of alexandria, bridgewater, bristol, danbury, groton, hebron, hill and new hampton with a population of 11,585. Nasd is eligible to receive federal funds and serve as fiscal agent on behalf of the newfound coalition for youth (ncfy). The newly revised ncfy grew out of the dedication and commitment of the cohesive, multi-sector community coalition after the original coalition's fiscal agent relinquished the grant in september 2023 without consulting all of the 12 sectors to continue these critical prevention efforts. This abrupt change did not terminate the commitment and dedication of the coalition. In fact, IT strengthened the resolve to carry on and expand youth substance use prevention efforts. This has resulted in a stronger coalition interested in leveraging the DFC parameters, which includes utilizing evidenced-based prevention strategies to serve the newfound region of new hampshire (NH). Our mission is to build collaborative partnerships, working with our community to prevent and reduce youth substance misuse and promote healthy environments and promising futures. The motto of nasd is "we are newfound" which is why we are applying directly for this funding opportunity. The ncfy has community buy-in and embedding these efforts into the schools in our rural community strengthens our ability to reach our goals of reducing youth substance use and increasing prevention efforts. This is truly a local initiative as over 80% of the coalition members live and work in the towns of newfound and have long-standing commitments to their community. We will achieve our goals by implementing evidence-based environmental and targeted prevention strategies to address prevention of youth alcohol and marijuana use. We will expand and strengthen our community coalition spanning all 12 community sectors. A cornerstone of our approach is to engage youth in school-based prevention programming and a youth empowerment group called "getting to y". Leveraging these collaborations, we will launch and disseminate comprehensive youth alcohol and marijuana prevention strategies through outreach, education, social and traditional media campaigns, youth activities, and community events. Our overarching goal is to reduce risk factors and promote protective factors for preventing youth substance use, thereby reducing youth use of alcohol and marijuana in the newfound community.