Southern midcoast communities for prevention will increase community collaboration and reduce the use of marijuana and alcohol among youth in twelve towns in sagadahoc and cumberland county, maine.…

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded Mainehealth $125,000 on July 1, 2026, under the Drug-Free Communities Support Program (CFDA 93.276) to establish and strengthen community collaboration and reduce marijuana and alcohol use among youth in twelve towns across Sagadahoc and Cumberland County, Maine: Brunswick, Georgetown, Richmond, Bath, Woolwich, Bowdoinham, Phippsburg, Arrowsic, Topsham, Bowdoin, Harpswell, and West Bath.

The project pursues two long-term goals: establishing and strengthening collaboration among community stakeholders and organizations to address youth substance use, and reducing substance use among youth and adults by addressing risk factors while promoting protective factors. Strategies include increasing satisfaction and skills among coalition members, recruiting new partners, participating in established prevention and teen center groups, creating outreach campaigns targeting events with high youth alcohol use, improving adult skills in preventing youth access to marijuana, decreasing permissive community norms around marijuana, creating positive messaging campaigns on substance-use norms, and increasing adult capacity for age-appropriate substance-use discussions.

The project evaluation team participates in the DFC national cross-site evaluation, leveraging Maine Integrated Youth Health Survey results. Data on past 30-day use, perception of risk, perception of parental disapproval, and perception of peer disapproval of alcohol and marijuana are collected biennially and shared with school boards, youth and teen center boards, and other community stakeholders.

The period of performance runs from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2031, with place of performance in Maine.

Southern midcoast communities for prevention will increase community collaboration and reduce the use of marijuana and alcohol among youth in twelve towns in sagadahoc and cumberland county, maine. - southern midcoast communities for prevention will decrease marijuana and alcohol use among youth living in twelve towns in sagadahoc and cumberland county, maine-brunswick, georgetown, richmond, bath, woolwich, bowdoinham, phippsburg, arrowsic, topsham, bowdoin, harpswell, and west bath. The project has two long-term goals: 1. Establish and strengthen collaboration among community stakeholders and organizations to address youth substance use. 2. Reduce substance use among youth, and over time, reduce substance use among adults by addressing community factors that increase the risk of substance use while promoting factors that minimize the risk of substance use. Project strategies include: - increasing satisfaction among coalition members - enhancing skills of coalition members - recruiting new coalition partners - participating in established substance use prevention and teen center groups - creating an outreach campaign for events with historically high youth alcohol use - improving adult skills in preventing access to and expressing disapproval for youth marijuana use - decreasing permissive community norms of marijuana use - creating a positive messaging campaign around positive community norms related to substance use - increasing adult skills around having age-appropriate discussions about substance use. The project evaluation team will participate in the DFC national cross-site evaluation, leveraging maine integrated youth health survey results. Data on past 30-day use, perception of risk, perception of parental disapproval, and perception of peer disapproval of alcohol and marijuana is collected biennially and will be tabulated and reported throughout the project term. These data sets will be shared by the coalition with school boards, youth/teen center boards, county boards of health, hospital boards of directors, and local organizations.