Submitted by The Coalition for Orcas Youth.

The Coalition for Orcas Youth held a Key Leader and Sector representative meeting via zoom on May 25.

COY Key Leaders Kyle Freeman, Berto Gandara, Rick Hughes, Ron Krebs, Barbara LaBrash, Brian Moss, Julie Pinardi, Lorena Stankovich and Eric Webb were in attendance. The meeting was an opportunity for COY to update leaders on the coalition’s work in the community, share about the strategic framework that guides their community process, and encourage the continued collaboration of all who attended.

The Coalition for Orcas Youth operates on the principle that local problems need local solutions. COY has two goals: to increase community collaboration and to reduce youth substance use and misuse. These goals are addressed using seven proven strategies for affecting community change. If one person or group utilizes just a single strategy, for example, to provide information via a media campaign about vaping, the impact is limited. However, when a community addresses youth vaping using media, policy, and youth education, they are much more successful at reducing youth use rates. To implement multiple strategies, you need multiple partners; that’s why COY brings together a diverse group of representatives from all sectors of the community.

Alison Sanders, COY Co-Coordinator shared, “So much of prevention work in the past has been feeling-based. People have tended to do what feels right when it comes to prevention. What we know now is that lots of that work was ineffective or worse, even increased youth substance use. We as prevention planners are pressed to put in place solutions to urgent substance misuse problems facing our communities. But research and experience have shown that prevention must begin with an understanding of these complex behavioral health problems within their complex environmental contexts; only then can communities establish and implement effective plans to address substance misuse.”

What sets the prevention coalitions like the Coalition for Orcas Youth apart, is the use of a Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF). The five steps and two guiding principles of the SPF offer prevention planners a comprehensive approach to understanding and addressing the substance misuse and related behavioral health problems facing our communities. By bringing together different sectors of the community, COY can develop a comprehensive and responsive plan to address our community’s unique substance abuse problems.

Thank you to all of the Key Leaders in our community who have partnered with the Coalition for Orcas Youth. Through their continued collaboration, COY is better able to pursue the work of growing what’s good in our community and promoting youth wellness.