Thursday, April 10, 2025
4/10/2025
Belmont Wellness Coalition Drug Free Communities Support Program - The Belmont Wellness Coalition, with Wayside Youth and Family Support Network as our fiscal agent, proposes to continue and enhance its Drug Free Communities Support (DFC) Program with focus on the prevention and reduction of alcohol and marijuana use among youth in Belmont, MA. Coalition and youth-led outreach and strategies will involve targeted education through community awareness raising events that aim to increase adult and youth knowledge of the harmful impacts of substance misuse. Youth and caregivers will learn to identify positive coping skills as well as refusal skills strategies that help reduce youth turning to substances to deal with overwhelming negative stress. Parental absence (i.e., enabling unsupervised house parties and other risky opportunities) is of special concern in our community, therefore education in the Social Host Liability law will be increased. The population served includes Belmont's diverse adolescents who represent a variety of racial, cultural, linguistic, gender and sexual orientation groups. Approximately 2,000 youth, ages 12-18, will be impacted through the Coalition's work with the middle and high schools. Numerous adult community members will also be served via community-wide outreach efforts and messaging initiatives. The Coalition will use the DFC grant to increase the existing Coalition’s capacity, to enable it to expand and fortify its collaborations with community partners as well as its Peer Leader Program (which currently lags for lack of organizational resources). Continued DFC support will allow the Coalition to also enhance its outreach to parents (whose absence from home is a known risk factor for their children). Expanded focus in these areas will extend and reinforce the reach of the Coalition's prevention work throughout the community. The Coalition will utilize the Seven Strategies for Community Level Change to assist our Coalition in achieving the following goals and objectives to reduce underage use of alcohol and marijuana in our community: · Increase Youth and Parents' Awareness of Perception of Harm from substance misuse · Enhance youth training in refusal skills and positive coping strategies · Strengthen our capacity to support youth by enlarging the Peer Leadership program · Build our capacity to enrich and expand our collaborations across the town · Disseminate information on Social Host Liability laws (a particular gap in town)
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).