Drug Free Communities Grant Continuation Application for Norwalk, CT - The Norwalk Partnership (TNP) is a coalition of community stakeholders working together to prevent substance misuse and promote mental wellness among youth and young adults in Norwalk, Connecticut. With CT’s recent legalization of adult-use cannabis, the substance use landscape in Norwalk is changing rapidly. After five successful years building a new coalition and implementing education and environmental strategies, Norwalk is ready to address these challenges with a targeted effort on underserved and marginalized populations.
TNP’s focus is on underage use of alcohol and cannabis–the substances reported most used in the 2022 Norwalk Youth Survey. These substances are socially available, especially alcohol in homes; and youth and parents alike perceive little risk related to cannabis.
To this end, TNP has several primary objectives:
*Build community awareness and collaboration to address community-specific risk factors and ensure a healthy, substance-free environment for youth-
*Decrease the percentage of youth who report little to no harm from cannabis use
*Increase the percentage of youth who report cannabis is hard to access
*Increase the percentage of youth reporting clear family rules around alcohol use
*Increase the percentage of youth who report alcohol is hard to access
TNP’s work will specifically address health equity by supporting marginalized youth and targeting underserved neighborhoods identified in our local data. These higher-risk groups include LGBTQ youth, Multi-Language Learners, Hispanic and Black youth, and students with IEPs (special education), as well as the South Norwalk neighborhood. Our efforts will include:
Providing information: Conduct biannual youth and parent surveys. Work with city departments to map out and plan around hotspots. Disseminate findings via infographics, social media, videos, and presentations that raise awareness and dispel myths. Adapt Social Host and other campaigns to target communities. Outreach and recruit adult and youth champions from higher-risk communities to develop culturally relevant messaging to their neighborhoods.
*Enhancing skills: Provide prevention education to youth (including peer education); parents; coalition members; youth-serving adults (teachers, coaches, mentors, youth ministers); and professional development for health teachers.
*Providing support: Continue Norwalk Strong teen clubs and Teen Nights Out for high school students, and create similar alternatives for middle schoolers. Provide wellness events, resource fairs and mental health supports in school and high-risk neighborhoods.
*Enhancing access/reducing barriers: Provide resource kits (locks, stickers, magnets) to keep family homes and parties safer. Offer youth support groups, enhance access to school-based behavioral health resources, and identify and address substance hotspots. Regularly update TNP’s resource guides and videos to raise awareness about local treatment and support/recovery programs; disseminate to youth, families, and providers.
*Changing consequences: Work with the school district to make ATOD policies more restorative and to address inequities. Use social media to recognize law enforcement for compliance checks, thank retailers who pass, identify those that are not compliant. Publicly support increase of party patrols and enforcement of Social Host violations.
*Changing physical design: Work with the City on signage at beaches, parks, schools, and hotspots. Provide culturally appropriate posters to retail businesses, event spaces that host quinceañeras/other youth milestones, and public housing and on buses.
*Educating and informing about policies: Continue educational forums for legislators. Provide data/strategies to schools, Common Council, Planning & Zoning.
