Thursday, April 25, 2024
4/25/2024
The City of West Haven (CT) is on the Long Island sound, between Milford and New Haven, eighty miles from New York City, connected by rail and major highways. West Haven sits immediately on the I-95 interstate drug corridor. West Haven is a mid-sized city with an estimated population of 55,044 (CT Economic Resource Center [CERC], 2017). The city is relatively low median household income ($55,299) significantly lower than the State ($73,781) and County ($64,872). (CERC 2009) Correspondingly, its poverty rate is higher: 13.2% compared to 10.1% for the State and 12.1% for the County. The city is racially and ethnically diverse with a breakdown of 51.8% White; 22.4% Black; 21.0% Hispanic; and 3.9% Asian (local data is drawn from udsmapper.org). West Haven has a large foreign born population of 15.9%, compared to 13.7% for the Country. With regard to language 72% of the population speak only English, and 28% speak some other language. The most prominent non English speaking language is Spanish at 18%. The West Haven public school system has approximately 6,091 students enrolled in one high school (with an alternative education school), one school housing 5th and 6th graders, one school housing 7th and 8th graders, and six elementary schools. The city also has two private elementary schools and one private high school. The largest employers are the VA Medical Center, University of New Haven and Yale University. While there is no breakdown of religious data that could be found for the city, the county data reflects that 51.2% report no religious affiliation, 35.3% Catholic, 11% Protestant, and 2.3% other. The West Haven Drug & Alcohol Task Force was incorporated in 1985 through the State of Connecticut's Office of the Secretary of the State. The committee was formed as a result of concerns voiced at from the public school system's PTA around issues of youth substance abuse. Over the years, there was never sufficient funding to create a comprehensive data driven approach to the reduction of youth substance abuse, nor did the Coalition maintain broad representation or recognition. The recent approach has been to provide strategies and events to individual schools, and again the lack of any paid, dedicated staff and funding prevented the Coalition from creating a strong social media presence on the variety of platforms that youth access. Despite the longstanding presence of the Coalition, the lack of resources did not afford the opportunity for community level change. The West Haven Prevention Council (WHPC) will employ its community leadership, and the key grant personnel to effect community level change. The mechanism to achieve this is the utilization of SAMHSA's Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) and the implementation of the Seven Strategies for Community Level Change to plan and implement evidence-based prevention strategies in West Haven. The goals of the project are to increase community collaboration and to reduce youth use of alcohol and marijuana. The Coalition will increase its membership by 25% and its leadership by 100%. The use of alcohol will be reduced by addressing local root causes of availability and favorable attitudes; the use of marijuana will be reduced by addressing the root causes of low perception of harm and availability.
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).
