The Hunterdon County Safe Communities Coalition goals of this initiative are: Strengthen and expand coordination among 12 sectors and to implement strategies for community level change to prevent and reduce abuse of opioids and prescription medications in Hunterdon County with youth ages 12-18 years old from June 15, 2018 through June 14, 2021. Key strategies for community level change will be; create a youth led opioid task force, create an adult led task force to expand capacity and build further collaboration, target high risk youth population, educate medical community on the value of the PDMP, best prescribing practices and alternatives to opioids, inform community on Narcan, safe storage and disposal of medications, modify policies that include strengthen youth diversion programs to include opioid education and counseling, update schools policies on opioid prevention practices. The New Jersey Hunterdon County Safe Communities Coalition serves a region within Hunterdon County, with a population of 127,000 that is of natural beauty and pleasant suburban living. It is a not the stereotypical urban area associated with many recent N.J. TV shows. Hunterdon County, which recently celebrated its 300th birthday, is located an hour west of New York City and an hour northeast of Philadelphia. The county is very diverse with farm land, small municipalities, and towns covering 437 square miles. Many families are a two income household, leaving teens unsupervised. The socio-economic average median income is $105,444. Race, ethnicity and culture breakdown are; 91% White, 2.8% Black, 6.3% Latino, and 3% Asian. Sixty eight percent of the community is Catholic while the remaining 32% are a diverse mix. As the county is not populated with heavy industries most commute outside the county to work. Two things locally we know about driving in our region, at any given time deer will run across our roads and we have the first easily accessible food/rest stop from Newark International Airport along Route 78. In most recent years, this rest stop area has more drug arrests than any other area along Route 78 in the entire state. The HCSC, has strong community development history and collaborative ties to its community sectors and relationships in reducing youth substance use. With collaborative partnerships with key stakeholders, shared resources and focused environmental strategies, HCSC has been able to achieve critical population level, environmental changes that have significantly contributed to deceasing the incidence of youth substance use in Hunterdon County. In 2011, HCSC was awarded the nationally recognized Dose of Prevention Award, for outstanding coalition and community engagement with over the counter and prescription drug prevention; in 2013, HCSC was awarded the CADCA's Got Outcomes milestones award; and in 2017 HCSC was named Coalition of the Year by CADCA based on data identifying a long term decrease of 30 day use of both alcohol and marijuana in our youth. The state of NJ, including our county, is in crisis, due to high volume and purity of heroin and prescription pill trafficking. Thousands of our local families have access to health care with fully stocked medicines cabinet resulting in easy access and availability of prescription drugs. As recent as January 2018, national news was made when one of our local psychiatrists was charged by the prosecutor and DEA for over-prescribing practices and a local mom and daughter was arrested for an oxycodone ring. County PRIDE survey results revealed in 2016, past 30 day use of prescription drugs for our school grades 9th - 12th was at 9.4 percent almost doubled from 4.9 percent in 2014. Key informant interviews with juvenile officers indicate juvenile arrests are primarily opioids and marijuana.
