Lexington United is a collaborative approach based in each school district in Lexington County, SC with a focus on preventing youth substance use and promoting mental health awareness. - Lexington United intends to bring together five school districts in Lexington County, SC with a focus on reducing the onset and progression of substance misuse and its related problems by supporting the development and delivery of community-based substance misuse and prevention and mental health promotion services. Although prosperous in many Ways, Lexington has a significant need to re-engage communities and local systems to help reduce the onset and progression of substance use and related problems. Lexington is 699 square miles and inclusive of five separate school districts varying in size from small rural districts to larger more urban settings. Many individuals and families are drawn to Lexington given its high quality school districts, abundance of recreational resources, and business growth with high paying jobs. The 2020 census results indicate that the county grew by 12% from 2010 with a population of 293,991. Lexington has pockets of underserved communities in primary rural local that are greatly impacted by Substance Use Disorders. Lexington United will focus on Lexington School Districts 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 where families are at high risk for substance use and mental health conditions, drug overdose, and disproportionate housing problems. Lexington United will convene communities to build infrastructure for evidence-based prevention, create conditions for collaborative activities including data sharing, promoting health and wellbeing with medical providers, lead Lexington County's Overdose Fatality Review, and strategically engage families in locations shown at highest risk. Through building infrastructure for progress on the Strategic Prevention Framework for readiness to implement required activities, deliver and measure high-quality prevention messaging and outreach activities, individual and small group prevention services, and mental health promotion, and to decrease youth substance use by implementing evidence-based prevention strategies that address behavior that may lead to substance use. The goals will be achieved through various strategies, to include, developing community-based coalitions within all five school districts of Lexington County, implement individuals and group prevention services to include universal, selective, and indicated strategies, to develop comprehensive media campaigns with prevention messaging intended to reach the population of focus, and to offer opportunities for individuals to engage in mental health promotion activities. Through the implementation of these strategies, Lexington United aims to increase collaboration among community partners, collect comprehensive needs assessment indicators, increase access to evidence-based prevention services, increase the number of individuals served across the IOM categories, increase the number of outreach activities intended for the population of focus, decrease access to substances among youth, and change attitudes favorable within substance misuse among the target population. Lexington United aims to reach 5,000 people annually with a project lifetime reach of 25,000.
