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Substance Abuse Prevention

Alcohol and other drug problems can undermine the ability of parents and other caregivers to provide the consistent support and nurturing young children need to develop the social and emotional skills essential to their wellbeing. Recognizing this, many Project LAUNCH grantees, including all Cohort Three grantees, include substance abuse prevention strategies in their work.

Given the prevalence of co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders and their impact on young children, SAMHSA encourages all grantees to include substance abuse prevention strategies in their efforts to improve the wellbeing of young children and their families.

Grantees at Work

In Connecticut: The local child wellness coordinator sits on the local Substance Abuse Action Council (SAAC), and the local council includes the state’s Strategic Prevention Framework-State Improvement Grant (SPF-SIG) representative.  “Promising Starts”, the Project LAUNCH in New Britain, is working to align goals with the SAAC Council on family norms as it relates to substance abuse prevention. This Project LAUNCH grantee will emphasize the dangers of second hand smoke on infants and smoking cessation in their home visiting program. In addition, the Project LAUNCH grantee is bringing HALO (Healthy Alternatives for Little Ones) programming to children ages 3-6 in the community. This health education and substance abuse prevention program is being offered to children in early care and education settings throughout the LAUNCH community.

In Kansas: At the state level, Project LAUNCH is a major partner in the Kansas Alliance for Drug Endangered Children, which hosts an annual conference to increase awareness about substance abuse by providing professional development for early childhood caregivers. In August 2010, Project LAUNCH held a Webinar for 45 Project LAUNCH providers on considerations in serving families dealing with substance abuse (PDF,1.19 MB).

This year, Project LAUNCH held a town meeting in Wichita (PDF, 259 KB) with a national speaker to raise awareness of children exposed to substance use in the home and awarded mini-grants to communities to plan local events.  It is also spearheading the second annual Awareness Day on Drug-Endangered Children in Kansas on April 25, 2012.  You can find out more at the Kansas Alliance for Drug Endangered Children Web site. 

The local LAUNCH demonstration site in Finney County conducted Second Step training for teachers in three child care centers for 4-8 year olds and plans to offer similar training to home visiting staff. In addition, LAUNCH is working together with a local substance abuse prevention coalition in Shawnee to create a strategic plan, which has significant replication potential as a model for blending early childhood direct services with substance abuse prevention.  Statewide PL director, Cristi Cain, says, “Substance abuse prevention fits really well with our work to promote wellbeing in young children. We want to make sure that everyone involved in the LAUNCH target community is informed about substance abuse resources and programs”.(e.g. NADEC webinars).

Please refer back to this strategy page in the days and weeks after the Project LAUNCH Institute in mid-May. We will have many more resources to share with you.

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