Moulton Announces North Reading to Receive $675,000 from Federal Government to Combat Youth Drug, Alcohol and Tobacco Use

Press Release

Today, Representative Seth Moulton (D-MA) announced that the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy's Drug-Free Communities (DFC) Support Program released a new round of grants that includes $675,000.00 worth of funding for North Reading. This grant will be used by the North Reading Youth Substance Use Prevention Coalition to reduce youth substance use, increase capacity of coalition, reduce risk factors and increase protective factors in North Reading. In 2021, the Coalition was named a model coalition by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

With this grant, the Coalition aims to target four substances. This includes marijuana, tobacco/nicotine, alcohol and non-prescribed use of prescription drugs. As necessary, the Coalition will target the use of other substances in the community.

Rep Moulton said: "Before the pandemic, Massachusetts and many other states saw an epidemic of prescription drug abuse and alcohol misuse that disproportionately affected young people. Those public health crises haven't ended, they just aren't getting talked about as much. North Reading's prevention coalition is doing amazing, and in many ways, unprecedented work to help people. I hope this grant extends that work to more people, and I look forward to partnering with them as they make progress."

"The success of the program and application is a statement to what a community can do when they come together to tackle a problem," said North Reading Town Administrator Michael Gilleberto. "The Coalition is run by an amazing group of town professionals and volunteers from across many sectors." He added, "This highlights the fact that substance use is not a police, school, or family problem alone. It's a community problem."

The Drug Free Communities Support Program provides competitive grants to community coalitions. The grants are designed to build a community's ability to create and sustain a reduction in youth substance use. After five years, community coalitions may re-compete for another five-year cycle, but there is a cap at 10 years. After the tenth year, the coalitions must include funding for their town or city. North Reading's coalition is currently on year six.

Even if a grant application is accepted, funding is not guaranteed and coalitions must submit an application every year. Among other things, the application includes an action plan with details about how the coalition intends to use the grant.

Drug Free Community-funded coalitions build programs that help young Americans at risk for substance use recognize that the majority of their peers choose not to use substances. As demonstrated by independent evaluations, the DFC Support Program significantly reduces substance use among young people.

According to the DFC, since the program's inception, the past 30-day prevalence of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and prescription drug misuse has declined significantly among middle school and high school aged youth.

To learn more about North Reading Youth Substance Use Prevention Coalition, visit their website at www.northreadingma.gov/CIT.

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