Substance Use Prevention and Mental Health Promotion
Since 2008, the Partnership for Community-based Prevention at the Voinovich School has generated nearly $11.5 million in external project funding from state and federal organizations, including the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services (Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵMHAS) to provide training, technical assistance, and evaluation services in the fields of substance abuse prevention and mental health promotion. This has led to the co-creation of several highly innovative initiatives including:
- Assisting 142 community-based organizations in 57 Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ counties to enhance their capacity to successfully implement and sustain substance abuse prevention programs. By building structural capital in a culturally relevant manner, the Voinovich School is ensuring that Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ’s rural and Appalachian communities have the infrastructure and shared knowledge necessary to effectively identify, prevent, and respond to the opioid crisis and other community problems.
- Introducing of youth-led programs to the most up-to-date research on youth development and prevention. By providing this training and technical assistance, the Voinovich School is ensuring adoption of evidence-based approaches most likely to generate measurable, sustainable impact on substance abuse rates among Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ teens. A cadre of these adult allies are now becoming leaders in the field, responsible for developing regional infrastructures to exchange and discuss best practices and research related to youth-led programming.
- Working closely with 18 Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ communities to prevent opioid use and abuse and reduce opioid-related deaths. This highly innovative combines a data-driven, strategic planning process with an emphasis on working collectively across the continuum of care, reducing trauma, and promoting resiliency.
- Embedding evidence-based prevention programming into support for families involved with the criminal justice system. As part of the Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ’s Children of Incarcerated Parents Initiative, the Voinovich School worked with the Federation of Urban Minority Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Outreach Programs and Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵMHAS to help faith-based organizations, coalitions, and others engaged with the correctional, criminal justice, court, and reentry systems to embed evidence-based prevention programming into their current service systems.