Amado community alliance will serve the rural amado, AZ area delivering multiple community level strategies and prevention services to increase community capacity to prevent youth substance use

The Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded $125,000 to Portable Practical Educational Preparation, Inc. on July 1, 2026, under the Drug-Free Communities Support Program (CFDA 93.276) to support community-level substance use prevention strategies in rural Amado, Arizona.

PPEP serves as the fiscal agent for the Amado Community Alliance, a youth substance misuse prevention coalition that has operated in Amado since February 2020. The coalition delivers multiple community-level strategies and prevention services to increase community capacity to prevent youth substance use in Amado, a small, unincorporated area in Southeast Arizona located 25 miles north of the Mexican border in ZIP code 85645, split across Santa Cruz and Pima counties. The area faces significant substance abuse risk factors, including proximity to Interstate I-19, identified as a drug smuggling corridor, and resource scarcity; over 47 percent of residents live at or below the poverty line. The ACA operates from a community base in Amado and has been working in the area for six years. PPEP previously assisted with grant writing and fundraising and constructed a new Amado Youth Center to serve the population.

The award period of performance runs from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2031. Place of performance is Arizona. The DFC Support Program requires coalitions to demonstrate at least six months of prior collaborative work on substance abuse reduction, maintain required composition, ensure substantial community volunteer effort, provide 100–150 percent cash or in-kind match, and participate in program evaluation.

Abstract

Portable practical educational preparation (ppep), INC. Is applying on behalf of the amado community alliance, a youth substance misuse prevention coalition serving amado, AZ since FEB 2020 to implement the drug free communities project. The amado community alliance (ACA) operates from a community base in amado, AZ which is a small rural unincorporated area in southeast arizona, just 25 miles north of the mexican border. The area is called "a ZIP code" (85645) and IT is crossed by interstate i-19, noted as the "drug smuggling corridor" to the US from mexico as many interdictions of drugs crossing the border happen at the checkpoints on this highway. Drug seizures also take place in and around the desert in which amado is located. Amado is a small rural obscure area and does not have many resources. Amado is also split across two different counties (santa cruz and pima) by the county lines. Many families struggle to get the support services needed and being on the periphery of either county, resources are scarce. While the median income is recorded as $74K there is over 47% of the residents living at or below the poverty line. Many families have a single head of household, with the adult oftentimes being monolingual spanish speaking only. There is no public transportation and no fresh produce supermarket. There is a dollar general, which is relatively new to the area (4 years). The ACA has been working in the area for the past 6 years to advance substance misuse prevention services. During this time, the fiscal agent, ppep, INC. Assisted with grant writing and fundraising and built a new amado youth center to better serve the population (198 on record). The ACA is very well supported by the community and the surrounding communities which are much more affluent and very invested in implementing the DFC project to help create a safe and drug free environment where youth can thrive and succeed. The ACA drug free communities project will implement multiple evidence based and evidence informed community prevention strategies across and engaging 12 different sectors to reduce and prevent youth substance use and over time adult substance use.