Drug Free St. Lucie

 
 
        

Drug Free St. Lucie Brochure

 
 
 
The Substance Abuse Prevention Network focuses on preventing underage drinking and substance abuse through education, awareness, community-wide initiatives, and changing social norms.
 
 

 

 

Roundtable of St. Lucie County

Awarded 5 Year, $625,000 Grant

to Support Youth Substance Abuse Prevention

The Roundtable of St. Lucie County’s Substance Abuse Prevention Network has been awarded a five year Drug Free Communities (DFC) grant of $125,000 per year from the White House’s Office of National Drug Control Policy and the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

This funding is recognition by the federal government of both the leadership of the Roundtable and the community’s commitment to create a healthy and safe environment for all of St. Lucie County youth.  The grant provides local community coalitions funding to prevent youth substance use, including prescription drugs, marijuana, and underage drinking. 

“Substance misuse and abuse among youth is a challenge we face in our community that leads to other social problems. The Roundtable’s Drug Free St. Lucie will use this resource and implement strategies that will make a difference,” said Chief John Bolduc, the Chair of the Roundtable.

Recognizing that local problems need local solutions, DFC-funded coalitions engage multiple sectors of the community and employ a variety of environmental strategies to address local drug problems.  The Roundtable’s Drug Free St. Lucie Coalition is comprised of community leaders, parents, youth, the school district, religious organizations, health care and business professionals, and law enforcement.  By involving the community, DFC also helps those youth at risk for substance use recognize that the majority of our nation’s youth choose not to use drugs.

 
Substance Abuse Campaigns
 
The Substance Abuse Prevention Network is currently promoting several promising social norming campaigns in partnership with the Community Coalition Alliance of Southeast Florida:
 
 
FRIDAY NIGHT DONE RIGHT: 
 
This is a social norm campaign that emphasizes things teens would rather do instead of drink or do drugs. The Roundtable will sponsor two large-scale teen events—one in Port St. Lucie and one in Fort Pierce – for youth to have fun in a safe and drug free environment. The Fort Pierce event will bring together the hundreds of teens in the Lincoln Park area who have participated in Restoring the Village focus groups over the last six months. These teens have been very candid with community leaders about their experience with violence and substance abuse in our community. We want to recognize and celebrate them, acknowledging that while it’s often the negative that gets the attention, we know that the majority of youth in our community are making right choices. 
 
 
KNOW THE LAW:  A GUIDE FOR YOUTH AND PARENTS: 
 
This booklet was developed as a collaborative project to provide information to parents and youth on the laws surrounding substance abuse and violence and the consequences of breaking them. The goal is to have this booklet distributed in schools or after school by law enforcement officers as part of presentations to students. The Roundtable will work with school security and resource officers to launch this campaign, and continue to collaborate with the Lincoln Park Ministers Association in their effort to build positive relationships between law enforcement and youth in the community.
 
Talk. They Hear You.
 
The Substance Abuse Coalition is focused on bringing awareness to parents and caregivers in St. Lucie County about the national underage drinking prevention campaign “Talk. They Hear You.”  This campaign, developed by SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration), “helps parents and caregivers start talking to their children early --as early as 9 years old-- about the dangers of alcohol.”   
 
The campaign and its website provide tools and literature about the negative consequences of underage drinking. The website also includes an interactive video game that helps parents “learn the do’s and don’ts of talking to kids about underage drinking.”  
 
Through collaboration between the St. Lucie County School District, New Horizons of the Treasure Coast, Inc., and DATA, all 5th grade students and numerous high school students in the county will be receiving literature on two separate occasions to take home to their parents/caregivers about the “Talk. They Hear You.” campaign.
No ID. No Sale.
 
Youth see gas stations and convenience stores plastered with signs promoting alcohol and tobacco just while driving by the stores, and even more so when they enter the stores.   In the fall of 2014, Roundtable staff conducted scans of local convenience stores to evaluate how these stores were promoting alcohol and tobacco products through signage and sales practices.  Here are the results:
 
  • Almost 61% of the signs outside the convenience stores promoted alcohol, and almost 40% promoted tobacco;
 
  • Almost 54% of the signs inside the convenience stores promoted alcohol, and almost 23% promoted tobacco.
 
  • 33% of the stores had signs outside emphasizing that buyers must be 21 to purchase alcohol, and 89% had signs outside stating that buyers must be 18 to purchase tobacco.
The Bottom Line:  “NO ID. NO SALE.” Signage is important to portray a unified message to youth.  The lack of signage promotes an environment where underage use is acceptable.