CE23-0004 - The Brainerd Lakes Area Drug Education (BLADE) Coalition formed to address youth substance use in the Crow Wing County Community through prevention education and awareness. - The Brainerd Lakes Area Drug Education (BLADE) Coalition formed as a community entity in 2019 to address youth substance use in the Crow Wing County community. The mission of BLADE is to prevent drug use, protect our people, and preserve our community. The vision of BLADE is to foster a healthy, well-connected, and resourceful community. With funding awarded from the Drug-Free Communities solicitation, BLADE will address youth access to substances, youth beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions of substance use, and will support healthy behaviors while promoting protective factors in the community through primary prevention strategies that impact the Policy, System, and Environmental (PSE) change to reduce youth substance use. In partnership with coalition members and local organizations, BLADE will work with Crow Wing County youth, 6th-12th grade, from the Brainerd School District in year one, and from Pequot Lakes and Crosby-Ironton in subsequent years, to reduce youth substance use in the three focus areas of alcohol, tobacco (emphasis on vaping), and marijuana. BLADE strategies will limit youth access to substances, change culture and context to how decisions are made, shift consequences on youth substance use, and address health disparities while promoting health equity. These strategies encompass the CADCA's Seven Strategies for Community Change. BLADE will work with the Crow Wing County community to serve as a catalyst to create comprehensive systemic change in schools, businesses, law enforcement, and government, by influencing legislation, policy, and practice with decision-makers in Crow Wing County.
