NEWBERRY — The Newberry County Coalition on Underage Drinking, hosted by Westview Behavioral Heath Services, has received continued funding through the Drug-Free Communities Support Program grant.
The grant total is for $125,000.
“We’re losing more than 60,000 people per year to drug overdose, but if we can stop young people from starting to use drugs in the first place, we can save lives,” said Richard Baum, acting director of National Drug Control Policy. “Our local DFC coalitions are a key part of this effort because they are bringing together parents groups, schools, healthcare professionals, law enforcement, businesses, and others to prevent drug use and improve the health of the community.”
The grant will not only include the $125,000 but also a dollar for dollar match.
“The grant is for $125,000 in federal funds, and then we provide a dollar for dollar match. The grant then becomes $250,000. The dollar for dollar match is in kind donations, volunteer hours, to meet the dollar for dollar match,” said DFC Coalition Coordinator Terecia Wilson.
To receive the continued funding for the Newberry County Coalition, which is now extended for its fourth year, Wilson said they submitted an application earlier this year that demonstrates what the Coalition had accomplished in the last year.
“To show we were worthy to receive the continuation funding and that we were fulfilling our mission, doing what we said we would do,” she said. “We had a site visit on Aug. 22. The site visit was conducted by the assigned program office from the Substance and Mental Health Service Administration (SAMHSA). During the site visit we were able to clearly demonstrate what all the Coalition had accomplished since the DFC grant was originally funded in 2014.”
During the visit Wilson said they provided all the information related to every aspect of the grant, demonstrated how they have implemented the various evidence based strategies, and provided data that showed the level at which the different strategies had been implemented.
“For example, we had to provide a list of how many public safety check points had been conducted, how many compliance checks (which is having someone clearly underage try and buy alcohol) at various retail outlets had been conducted, provide information on how many Palmetto Retailer Education Courses we had conducted,” Wilson said.
The Coalition also had to show the number of community meetings they conducted, the number of presentations given, and provide all the evaluation data collected. Wilson added they had collected a lot of information and data since the Coalition was initiated, which includes data collected from focus groups and student surveys.
The Coalition also had to show that they used the information and data collected and put together different strategies and action plans, and show that they fulfilled their action plans as well as implementing evidence based strategies, which are strategies that have been implemented multiple times across the nation through solid scientific research.
“The program officer from SAMHSA was absolutely overwhelmed with all the Coalition had accomplished, based on the fact that when the site visit was conducted, we were in our third year of the project. She indicated we are much further along in the process than other third year projects that they had seen,” Wilson said. “I think a lot of that can be attributed to the outstanding work Tom Perry, the former DFC coalition coordinator, had done leading the Coalition, and the support of the mission that our Coalition members had demonstrated over the last three years. They have been tremendous in getting out in the community.”
Wilson added that the officer believed that Newberry County Coalition was at the front of the line in terms of DFC programs at their current stage.
Now that the Coalition has been extended, the plan is to continue education on the dangers and risk of underage drinking.
“We will make a real push in the next year in educating about marijuana use, and get the real truth out to refute some of these myths about marijuana use,” Wilson said. “Our goal is to make Newberry County a safe and drug-free place for our youth. Prevention is a powerful tool to counteract drug use in our community, and we will use this funding to help youth in Newberry County make healthy choices about substance use. Our key focus is on the prevention of underage drinking and marijuana use.”