Wednesday, April 24, 2024
4/24/2024
The Partners for Prevention of Erie County (PPEC) project was awarded a FY 2020 Drug Free Communities Support Program grant in the amount of $125,000 by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, in cooperation with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The project is administered by the Erie County Health Department and serves Erie County, Ohio, a community of 75,000. This project, in its seventh year, has the goal of strengthening and sustaining community collaboration in support of local efforts to prevent youth substance use. Objectives are to increase membership in both the PPEC (adult) coalition and the SPARK (youth) group and increase members’ capacity for their role through skill development and specialized trainings. Other objectives include reducing youth access to alcohol by working with local vendors (sales compliance), increasing consequences for illegal sales to or consumption of alcohol by youth, increasing general substance use messaging, increasing education regarding marijuana use, and increasing student exposure to a top-tier, school-based youth prevention curriculum. Strategies include: 1) increase community awareness of coalition efforts to encourage new partnerships and build diverse membership; 2) strengthen coalition capacity through skill development and specialized training; 3) reduce youth access to alcohol by conducting vendor compliance checks and environmental scans and targeting vendors not in compliance with prevention methods such as product stickers, ServSafe Alcohol training, and strengthening policies/practices for non-compliance consequences; 4) continue to provide multiple educational presentations on the health effects of marijuana use; 5) expand use of an evidence-based youth prevention curriculum in local school systems; 6) follow the marketing plan to distribute prevention materials and disseminate messaging. The PPEC will also expand the use of an established school-based youth group known as SPARK (Students Preventing Abuse & Raising Knowledge) to lead peer-to-peer activities and interactions that focus on the prevention of youth substance use. This group of over 50 students will receive training to enhance their knowledge and skills regarding youth-led prevention strategies and leadership. There are about 19,000 youth in Erie County who will benefit from and have some exposure to the efforts provided by PPEC and SPARK, with an additional 4,000 youth added during the upcoming years of the project.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
