CAC of Fayette County to receive $2,000 grant

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The Community Action Commission of Fayette County will receive a $2,000 grant to improve youth-led drug prevention development during the 2018 fiscal year.

The grant to be received is part of a series of grants awarded by Prevention Action Alliance (PAA), totaling $114,000, to improve drug prevention throughout the state of Ohio.

“Community Action and the Prevention Coalition are honored to be chosen for this opportunity to receive technical assistance,” Christina Blair, planner with Community Action Commission of Fayette County said. “We are also looking forward to our youth participation in youth conference and the ‘We Are the Majority Rally.’ A lot of community partners have spent hours building our community’s capacity to combat the epidemic and it’s encouraging to see our plans coming together.”

The grant CAC of Fayette County is receiving is part of 12, $2,000 grants that will help several organizations to strengthen the skills in engaging with youth, positive youth development and youth empowerment. The grantee organizations will develop evidence-based plans for empowering and engaging with youth to prevent substance misuse. To assist in those plans, the grants provide both technical assistance and professional development.

“By the end of the grant cycle, 12 more organizations from throughout Ohio will have established youth-led prevention programs in their communities,” said Harim C. Ellis, director of Youth-Led Programs at Prevention Action Alliance. “And, dozens of other organizations already engaging in youth-led prevention will have received support and professional development. This will create a cycle of mentorship within youth-led prevention throughout Ohio, build upon the successes of existing youth-led partnerships and begin the process of forging new partnerships.”

The 11 other organizations that received $2,000 grants were: Clermont Recovery Center, of Batavia; Defiance County Drug Free Coalition, of Defiance; Goodwill Easter Seals Miami Valley, of Dayton; Live It Like You Mean It, of Norwood; Lorain City Schools, of Lorain; Marion-Crawford Prevention Programs, of Marion; New Directions, The Domestic Abuse Shelter and Rape Crisis Center of Knox County, of Mount Vernon; Rape Crisis Center, of Canton; Stark County Mental Health and Addiction Recovery, of Canton; Women Helping Women, of Cincinnati; and Youth at the Center, of Cincinnati.

“Every day our youth are bombarded with messages that portray teens like them as people who misuse drugs and engage in other risky behavior,” said Marcie Seidel, executive director of Prevention Action Alliance. “Those messages, though false, set expectations for our youth that make drug use seem normal.”

“These grants will provide ongoing development opportunities in every region of Ohio and give a dozen organizations year-round support to implement plans for empowering youth to prevent substance misuse among their peers,” said Harim.

Additionally, the grants will establish four regional, youth-led training academies to support the professional development and workforce capacity of youth-led prevention as well as to provide resources and networking opportunities to youth-led prevention organizations. Those four grants of $22,500 each were awarded to Beth Thomas, with the Fulton County Health Department in Wauseon; Mollie Stevens, with Impact Prevention in South Point; Cheryl Sells, with CompDrug in Columbus; and Julianna Fellows, with Crossroads in Mentor.

Prevention Action Alliance is a 510(c)3 nonprofit based in Columbus, Ohio dedicated to leading healthy communities in the prevention of substance misuse and the promotion of mental health wellness. The Ohio Youth-Led Prevention Network, a program of Prevention Action Alliance, supports and connects adults and youth to build and expand youth-led prevention programs. To learn more, visit www.preventionactionalliance.org.

The information in this article was provided by Christina Blair, planner with Community Action Commission of Fayette County.

The Record-Herald

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