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Substance Prevention Resources for Schools

We’d love to collaborate! Contact Healthy Lamoille Valley Youth Substance Prevention Coordinator Carrie Patterson at  carrie@healthylamoillevalley.org

Featured Resource: Refusal Skills Workshops

Every year, Healthy Lamoille Valley travels through our district’s 6th grade classrooms to lead an interactive workshop on refusal skills, peer pressure, and healthy decision-making. Refusal skills are simple ways young people can say no when they feel pressured to do something unsafe or unhealthy, and practicing them can help build confidence and prepare them for real-life situations. Parents and caregivers can support this learning at home by asking their 6th grader what they learned and helping them practice ways to say no in everyday situations. Contact Youth Coordinator Carrie Patterson at carrie@healthylamoillevalley.org for more information.

 

 

 

Mixed age group high fivingFeatured Resource: Conversation Guide for Educators

This guide is intended for Lamoille Valley educators and those who work with youth to provide a common language across sectors. Learn more and download the guide.

 

 

 

Resources For School Administrators & School Health Teams

SAMHSA Student Assistance A Guide for School Administrators
This Student Assistance Guide from SAMHSA addresses school connectedness, substance use, mental health promotion, and violence prevention. Includes information about effective planning, implementation, evaluation, and sustainability of student assistance programs.

Green Peak Alliance Checklist for Vermont School Substance Use Policies and Procedures
This comprehensive checklist is intended for use by schools and communities in partnership with their local prevention coalitions.

Alliance for a Healthier Generation Tobacco-Free District Policy Implementation Checklist
This checklist explains the action steps needed to implement the Alliance for a Healthier Generation’s Tobacco-Free District Model Policy. Together, and when put fully in place, these key activities can reduce student and staff tobacco use and vaping on school grounds.

MA SBIRT Trainings and Resources
MA SBIRT provides trainings and other resources for school staff and administrators on implementing Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) in a school setting. VDH has 2 hour webinar training on SBIRT that includes a training on the CRAFFT and GAIN-SS screening tools

Vaping Prevention Resources for Educators and Administrators

Other Prevention Resources For Educators & Parents

“Talk. They Hear You.”
SAMHSA’s national substance use prevention campaign helps parents and caregivers start talking with their children early about the dangers of alcohol and other drugs uses. Includes resources for schools and educators.

ParentUp VT
ParentUp provides quick, accurate and easy-to-read information to help parents stay informed while they raise their teen.

VT Helplink Alcohol & Drug Support Center
Your statewide, public resource for finding substance use treatment and recovery services in Vermont.

National Institute on Drug Abuse
Find the latest science-based information about drug use, health, and the developing brain for parents and educators.

Partnership to End Addiction
Partnership to End Addiction partners with families, professionals and other organizations to end addiction in this country.

Truth Initiative
Truth Initiative is America’s largest nonprofit public health organization committed to making tobacco use and nicotine addiction a thing of the past.

Resources for Youth

Visit Healthy Lamoille Valley’s comprehensive hub of resources for youth.

Local Resources and Partners

United Way of Lamoille County
Comprehensive directory of Lamoille County community resources and opportunities.

Lamoille Family Center
As one of fifteen Parent Child Centers across the state, the Family Center offers early care and education services, home visiting, parent education, playgroups, childcare resource and referral, youth services and emergency assistance.

Lamoille Restorative Center
LRC has multiple programs that prevent delinquency and help young people transi­tion successfully to adulthood. Case managers work with individuals and in groups to assist youth with job coaching, housing support, and important life skills. Chil­dren (and their families) struggling with truancy are also provided case manage­ment support to overcome barriers to school attendance.

North Central Vermont Recovery Center
NCVRC is a safe, welcoming, substance-free environment for individuals and families on their paths to lasting recovery from alcohol and drug addiction.

Lamoille County Mental Health Services
Services for children and adolescents from birth through 22 years old who are experiencing mental health crisis. supportive counseling and service planning and coordination for parents. Individual, family, and group therapy services.

Lamoille Health Partners
Lamoille Behavioral Health and Wellness Services include, but are not limited to treating anxiety, phobias, depressive disorders, ADHD, marital and family issues, stress caused illness, substance abuse, PTSD, and grief. They service the public, schools and businesses by offering a wide variety of workshops, groups and management, adolescent substance abuse and more.

 Opportunities for Students

 

Create a Substance Prevention Committee at your school or in your school district that includes a diverse group of students. Making sure any endeavors your school undertakes is youth-driven and/or youth-informed.

GETTING TO ‘Y’- is an opportunity for students to bring meaning to their own Youth Risk Behavior Survey data. Through youth leadership, partnerships with adults, participatory action research, and peer and community engagement, participants not only experience personal growth and build their capacity for future civic engagement, but also effect sustainable change in youth behavior, community and school culture.

Our Voices Xposed / Vermont Kids Against Tobacco (OVX/VKAT) – The OVX (high school) and VKAT (middle school) groups engage and empower youth ages 10 to 18. Through youth leadership opportunities, they educate students, community members, and decision makers on the tactics used by the tobacco industry, encourage healthy choices among peers, and work to reduce tobacco use and change social norms. OVX and VKAT also work with the Vermont Department of Health on media and counter-tobacco marketing campaigns.  Contact Carrie – carrie@healthylamoillevalley.org – if you are interest in starting a group at your school.

Other Opportunities – The Healthy Lamoille Valley team is happy to brainstorm other ways to include prevention in third space student interactions such as afterschool clubs, theater, music, arts, sports, etc.