The leominster community action team (lcat) implements strategies to prevent and reduce youth use of alcohol, marijuana, and nicotine in leominster, MA. - the city of leominster, located in north…

The Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded LUK Crisis Center, Inc. $125,000 on July 1, 2026, under the Drug-Free Communities Support Program Grants (CFDA 93.276) to support the Leominster Community Action Team's prevention and reduction strategies targeting youth use of alcohol, marijuana, and nicotine in Leominster, Massachusetts.

The Leominster Community Action Team has operated since 2002 to prevent youth substance use in the city, sustaining efforts through volunteer commitment and small grants after state funding ended in 2014. The award funds expansion and enhancement of these prevention efforts through 2031. LUK Crisis Center serves as the fiscal agent and applicant; the organization has 25 years of experience supporting community coalitions implementing evidence-based substance use prevention models across North Central Massachusetts.

The Drug-Free Communities Support Program establishes and strengthens collaborations among community coalitions, public and private nonprofit agencies, and federal, state, local, and tribal governments to prevent and reduce substance abuse among youth. Eligible coalitions must demonstrate at least six months of prior collaborative work on substance abuse reduction, meet composition requirements, ensure substantial community volunteer effort, and provide 100–150 percent cash or in-kind match. The cooperative agreement runs through June 30, 2031, with performance and financial reporting required annually and upon completion.

The leominster community action team (lcat) implements strategies to prevent and reduce youth use of alcohol, marijuana, and nicotine in leominster, MA. - the city of leominster, located in north central massachusetts, is often described as a "big little town" where many residents know each other and have grown up together. While technically a city based on population size, IT still has a small-town feel. Many residents have lived in the city all their lives with an increasing number of recent transplants due to its proximity to highways and commuter rail that connect to larger cities throughout the state (i.e., boston, worcester, lowell) as well as cities in new hampshire. Leominster has a history of manufacturing (e.g., paper, plastics - including tupperware and pink flamingos), but most of these companies have closed or have moved their major manufacturing sites elsewhere. Leominster has become more commercial and suburban. The leominster community action team (lcat) has been working to prevent youth substance use in the city of leominster since 2002. After state funding ended, from 2014-2020, lcat operated on small grants, sponsorships, and donations, and sustained their efforts largely based on volunteer time and commitment. In 2020, lcat received drug-free communities support program funding to expand and enhance prevention efforts, with LUK, INC. As the applicant/fiscal agent. LUK has extensive experience supporting coalitions and prevention efforts. For the past 25 years, this has included supporting community coalitions to implement evidence-based substance use prevention models. Ongoing substance abuse in the area has impacted leominster, with high rates of underage drinking and smoking being reported among youth in comparison with other youth in massachusetts, and the opioid overdose rate remains high in the area (heywood community health assessment [hcha], 2024). Lcat has been working hard to address issues related to youth substance use. Goals for the next five years include growing and strengthening the coalition and preventing youths' use of alcohol, marijuana, and nicotine. Lcat utilizes the strategic prevention framework, seven strategies for community-level change, and the communities mobilizing for change on alcohol (cmca) model to organize sectors in the community to address legal, institutional, and local practices that enable the use of alcohol, marijuana, and nicotine among middle and high school aged students in leominster. These prevention strategies will unify lcat's efforts to shift community standards and attitudes regarding underage substance use. Lcat utilizes strategies such as compliance checks and sticker shocks, and lcat supports the adoption of evidence-based practices such as: communities mobilizing for change on alcohol (cmca), PAX tools, training for intervention procedures (tips), guiding good choices (GGC), project AMP, and idecide, trainings, social marketing campaigns, and other environmental approaches to target substance use rates among youth. Lcat has strong relationships with key stakeholders, including the applicant/fiscal agent (LUK, INC.), the leominster police department (LPD), business leaders, the leominster license commission, and leominster public schools (LPS). By utilizing environmental strategies and levering these partnerships, lcat intends to reduce alcohol and marijuana use among leominster youth by 10%, and nicotine use by 6%.