(C) Iowa Capital Dispatch
This story was originally published by Iowa Capital Dispatch and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



Three Iowa groups awarded $50,000 grants to fight youth drug abuse • Iowa Capital Dispatch [1]

["Jack O'Connor", 'Robin Opsahl', 'Lia Chien', 'Shalina Chatlani', 'More From Author', '- May', '.Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus-Coauthors.Is-Layout-Flow', 'Class', 'Wp-Block-Co-Authors-Plus', 'Display Inline']

Date: 2024-05-31  

Two school districts and a drug prevention group each received a five-year, $50,000 drug prevention and treatment grant that they plan to use to tackle youth drug abuse.

The Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) grant went to the Clinton Substance Abuse Council, Mount Vernon Community School District and Vinton Shellsburg Community School District.

For all three groups, educating kids and their parents about the drug epidemic is a major part of their drug prevention strategies.

Kristin Huisenga, executive director of Clinton Substance Abuse Council, said the group works directly with schools and the local community to tackle the abuse of prescription drugs.

The Clinton Substance Abuse Council offers a walk-through of a typical teenage bedroom for parents as part of their “Hidden in Plain Sight Experience.” The experience educates parents on how to talk to their children about drugs, symptoms of drug abuse, common ways drugs are hidden, risk factors for drug abuse and more.

“The whole process is trying to raise awareness of parents about different current issues and encourage them to talk to their kids about these issues of substance use,” Huisenga said.

As part of their education effort, Huisenga said they teach parents how to properly store prescription medications and set up medication drop boxes to prevent kids from abusing prescription drugs.

Educating kids about drug abuse through school counselors or guest speakers is another way schools are tackling the drug epidemic, said Tony Islas, assistant principal of Tilford Elementary in Vinton.

Islas said federal funding of drug prevention and outreach programs in schools is important as schools often don’t have enough funding to adequately address the issues.

“Each school district cannot do it themselves through their budgets. They just don’t have the money,” Islas said.

In the past, Vinton Shellsburg funded substance abuse counseling for students who needed the service but couldn’t afford it.

“Every life lost to drugs is a tragedy for the entire community,” Sen. Chuck Grassley said. “I’m encouraged to see CARA continue to benefit Iowans and support local advocates’ work.”

Huisenga said coordination with community members has been key to helping educate and tackle the drug epidemic locally.

“While our agency may have authored it and wrote it, it was only because of the collaborative effort [that it happened],” Huisenga said.

Drug issues facing today’s kids are not the same as what they used to be, Islas said. Vapes, fentanyl, synthetic opiates and laced products present unique challenges for activists.

Outside of Iowa, 61 other groups were awarded CARA grant funding.

“We need that support from our communities to help promote (drug prevention) to our students. It’s a valuable resource to have the government involved in that,” Islas said.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://iowacapitaldispatch.com/2024/05/31/two-school-districts-and-a-drug-prevention-group-have-received-a-five-year-50000-drug-prevention-and-treatment-grant-that-they-plan-to-use-to-tackle-youth-drug-abuse/

Published and (C) by Iowa Capital Dispatch
Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons CC BY-ND-NC 4.0.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/iowacapitaldispatch/