SAMHSA - Communities Talk About Prevention: Recent Episodes
SAMHSA
Tune in to SAMHSA’s new pilot podcast series to learn how community-based organizations and institutions of higher education are advancing substance use prevention in their own communities! In each episode of Communities Talk About Prevention, you'll learn about the substance use and related issues organizations are facing in their community, how they tailored their work to meet their community’s needs, how they overcame challenges in organizing a prevention-focused activity and how they measured success. Most importantly, they’ll share tips on what worked for them, which we hope will inspire you to get involved in prevention in your own community. This pilot podcast series features participants from SAMHSA’s national Communities Talk initiative. Since 2006, thousands of Communities Talk events and activities held across the country have helped increase public awareness of and action around the prevention of substance use and misuse, covering topics such as underage drinking, vaping, marijuana, opioids, methamphetamine, suicide, mental health, and more.
Guests:
- Omar McDew , Youth Advocate, City of New Britain
- Tyshaunda Wiley, Prevention Coordinator, New Britain’s Local Prevention Council
- Annalise Jones, Youth Leadership Council members, 8th grade student at HALS Academy
Organization:
- New Britain Local Prevention Council
Location:
- New Britain, Connecticut
About:
- New Britain’s Local Prevention Council works to promote wellness through education, advocacy, collaboration, and implementing strategies to ensure all youth are prepared to be positive contributing community members.
Guest:
- Rachel Lundgren, Director, Siouxland Cares
Location:
- Sioux City, Iowa
About:
- Rachel is an Iowa Board Certified Prevention Specialist and previously coordinated the Iowa Partnerships for Success Grant for Woodbury County. Rachel has been involved with Siouxland CARES for over four years and has loved serving as an Adult Advisor for the Mayor’s Youth Commission. She also serves on the Sioux City Neighborhood Network Board, and volunteers as a “Big” through Big Brothers Big Sisters of Siouxland.
- Siouxland CARES is a volunteer driven community coalition which aims to improve the quality of life in Siouxland by helping young people to make healthy choices about substances by strengthening protective factors and reduce risk factors. CARES is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation.
Guest:
- Mark Mellecker, Project Coordinator, Building a Safer Evansville (BASE)
Location:
- Evansville, Wisconsin
About:
- Mark Mellecker is the project coordinator for Building a Safer Evansville, or BASE. It's a community coalition based out of Evansville, Wisconsin. Evansville is considered a rural population that has a unique intersection of identities and people.
- BASE has seen a huge amount of substance abuse concerns and mental health concerns in youth. BASE was founded in 2009 to address this issue after some statistics came out in the 2008 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, or YRBS. Communities Talk has been a successful resource to engage the community. Across the board substance use is down from each drug category and age group. It has been a complete transformation in the past 10 years.