The money will be used for substance abuse prevention.
By Samantha C. DePoy
Staff Writer

EAST WILTON – A local health agency has been awarded $99,704 for the third straight year to fund programs that encourage kids throughout Franklin County to stay away from drugs and alcohol.

U.S. Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins announced Friday that the Healthy Community Coalition, based in East Wilton, would collect $99,704 from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to reduce and prevent substance abuse.

That funding will go toward HCC’s Youth to Youth program, which reaches into all five school districts including Rangeley, Livermore Falls, SAD 9, SAD 58 and SAD 36 impacting every high school student in Franklin County and in parts of Androscoggin County.

This is the third year Youth to Youth has been awarded this amount of grant money, said coalition Executive Director Leah Binder. “It’s great. We are thrilled,” she said Friday upon learning the grant had been renewed. “It’s going to make a big difference.”

Youth to Youth, headed up by Nicole Ditata, uses evidence-based strategies that have a proven track record in preventing substance abuse. “We aren’t just throwing money in the wind,” Binder said.

The money will help increase the number and availability of structured activities for kids after school, increase programs that install marketable skills through effective education and create ongoing relationships between caring adults and youth through mentoring programs.

Mentoring programs like the one at the Foster Regional Applied Technology Center, where local firefighters and healthcare workers are matched with students pursuing careers in those field.

The money will also be used to recruit ninth- and 10th-graders onto Youth Town Councils, a team of students who get together to decide on a vision for the school-age community in their area. Then, they draw up a work plan and make it happen, Binder explained.

In Jay, the town council is building a community park.

The goal of Youth to Youth, Binder said, is for greater Franklin County to become a place where youth don’t want to use substances because they’ve found fulfillment elsewhere.

Many high school students are stepping up to the plate to bat for the program, learning how to teach their peers and younger students about the importance of substance-free living.

“Young people lead the way here. We are just supporting young people who are making a difference,” Binder said.

Since the program was enacted two years ago, there has been some decline in drug use among youth, Binder said, but she isn’t sure whether that decrease can be attributed to Youth to Youth. “We’d like to think so,” she said. “We’ve got a long way to go but this grant renewal will really help us get there.”

Two other awards were announced by the senators Friday. The city of Gardiner, which serves as a fiscal agent for the Boy and Girls Club of Kennebec County, was awarded $99,990 and York Hospital in York received $75,000.

“Community programs are often key to helping our children stay away from trouble and stay in school,” the senators said in a joint statement. “The teenage years are often the most risky for our youth and it is our responsibility as a community to ensure they are guided in the right direction for success later in life.”

sdepoy@sunjournal.com

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