Lopez coalition for youth health advocates - lopez island is a small, rural and isolated island in the pacific northwest in SAN juan county in washington state

The Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention awarded $125,000 to Lopez Island Family Resource Center on July 1, 2026, under the Drug-Free Communities Support Program Grants (CFDA 93.276).

The recipient will support the Lopez Coalition for Youth Health Advocates in delivering youth-led prevention services and peer-to-peer education targeting alcohol, cannabis, and commercial tobacco use among youth on Lopez Island, Washington. The coalition will coordinate youth training at local, state, and national forums and youth-facilitated town hall meetings highlighting risk and protective factors related to youth alcohol use. Annually, the program will serve 300 youth and 800 adults; over the five-year project lifetime, it will reach 500 youth and 1,000 adults. Staff will support youth leadership engagement and co-design of community youth development programs addressing the island's geographic isolation and limited access to education, extracurricular activities, and mental health services. Youth Health Advocates, composed of elementary through high school students (grades 4–12), will work to foster youth prevention services and community improvement on Lopez Island.

Performance of work is in Washington. The award period runs from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2031. The assistance type is a Project Grant.

The drug free communities support for lopez island family resource center and its lopez coalition for youth health advocates is to fully support youth leadership to engage the community in youth prevention services and programs that reach youth. Additionally, the expansion of the new community coalition will strengthen community collaboration to prevent and reduce substance use among youth. The community coalition has identified alcohol, cannabis, and commercial tobacco as the focus areas for prevention efforts. Staff will support coordination of peer to peer education, youth training at local, state and national youth forums and youth-led town hall meetings that highlight risk and protective factors related to youth alcohol use and misuse. Annually, the number of people who will be served is 300 youth, and 800 adults. Over the lifetime of this project 500 youth will be served and 1,000 adults. Due to its geographic isolation, lopez island youth face limited access to quality resources such as education, extracurricular activities and mental health services. The lopez island youth engagement programs purpose is to design truly engaging environments for youth development. Engagement, and leadership requires young people at the table to CO-design, CO-lead, and CO-facilitate. The youth health advocates are a group of lopez island youth who work in the community to support youth prevention services and foster the improvement of lopez island youth from elementary to high school, grades 4-12. In 2023 the youth and community members identified 63% of grades 10 and 12 youth having lifetime use of alcohol. Lopez island youth health advocates have identified 26 grade 12 and 9% grade 10 youth continue to consume alcohol which has declined in grade 10 from 35% in 2014 and 21% in 2018 pre-covid. During the national pandemic 13% of youth reported using alcohol. Similarly, these same percentages hold true for youth use of cannabis and commercial tobacco, with many of the youth using all three identified substances. IT is the vision of the youth and our prevention community to continue to reduce and prevent youth use of alcohol, marijuana and commercial tobacco. The lopez community feels that IT has been successful in preventing and reducing youth alcohol use and early initiation of use. The intent of the DFC support for lopez island family resource center is to fully support the youth health advocates and the lopez coalition for youth health advocates to engage our community in youth prevention services and programs that reach lopez youth. Staff will support coordination of peer to peer education, youth training at local, state and national youth forums and youth-led town hall meetings that highlight risk and protective factors related to youth alcohol use and misuse. Annually, the number of people who will be served is 1100. Over the lifetime of this project 1500 people will be served directly and 900 indirectly through the influence of the youth health advocates and the lopez coalition for youth health advocates support by implementation of a comprehensive and capacity building, multi-strategy implementation plan that addresses the risk factors of low perception of harm, community norms favorable to use, and access and availability of alcohol, tobacco and drugs.