Wednesday, January 15, 2025
1/15/2025
Marin Healthy Youth Partnerships (MHYP) is a community-based coalition that works to reshape community norms that drive youth and adult substance use in Marin County, California. Local families face some of the most serious youth substance use problems in the state and nation. Compared with the 58 counties in California, 11th graders in Marin County have had the highest rates of current alcohol and cannabis use and the second highest rates of current binge drinking. Additionally, Tamalpais Union High School District (TUHSD), in the MHYP service area, has topped the county for past 30-day use amongst 11th graders for binge drinking, alcohol, cannabis, and e-cigarettes. Health disparities and social injustice are also serious problems in our communities, with Marin ranking in the bottom 10% of California counties for income inequality and second in the state for racial disparities. Data show that BIPOC and LGBTQ youth in our service area are at greater risk of substance use and mental health problems. MHYP will further strengthen our community coalition and our collaborations with partners that we have built over the past 5 years of DFC funding with the goal of reducing youth use of alcohol, cannabis and e-cigarettes. Our short and long term objectives address 3 root causes: 1) ease of access (local conditions: access at school, access at home, access to medical marijuana cards, no-chase policy for youth shoplifting substances), 2) low perceptions of risk of harm (local conditions: youth use at school, predatory youth-oriented marketing, cannabis legalization, lack of evidence-based substantive drug-use curriculum), and 3) toxic stress and mental health problems (local conditions: highly competitive “pressure cooker” environment, equity gap in access to services, parents and siblings using substances at home, social isolation, anxiety and depression). Our 12 month objectives prioritize equity-focused strategies to mitigate negative factors that disproportionately affect BIPOC and LGBTQ youth by building up protective factors within individuals, families, schools, and our communities. MHYP will undertake the following strategies and activities to achieve our long-term goal of reducing youth use of alcohol, cannabis, and e-cigarettes: 1) grow our 12-sector coalition and further align our work with local community organizations, 2) increase outreach and welcome representatives from communities in our expanded service area, 3) educate our community members and local elected officials about the protective benefits of adopting and implementing new local-level government policies designed to reduce youth access to substances, 4) support our youth coalition members in their efforts to develop an equity-focused program providing restorative justice responses to substance-use offenses, 5) reduce stigma around mental health issues and increase access to support through Mental Health First Aid training and a teen-adapted model of the Numb or Nourish campaign, and 6) develop a countywide substance use prevention curriculum informed by brain science and social science to be offered annually to build up teens’ decision-making skills, and to change the culture of accessing and using substances at school. MHYP will monitor and evaluate our processes and impacts by continuously analyzing data from surveys, focus groups, and key informant interviews about substance use, ease of access to substances, perceptions of harm, and perceptions of peer use and parental disapproval. MHYP will use that data to measure and improve progress toward the defined outcomes. Our coalition’s work will be disseminated through community events and online. Additionally, we will seek to expand our funding beyond the grant period through donations, support from foundations, and other grants from government agencies.
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).