By SARA BERGQUIST

sbe007@latech.edu

 

The department of health and exercise sciences was awarded a grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Sept. 20 to help reduce substance abuse among youth, and to develop a coalition of representatives.

The grant is titled “North Central Alliance Partners in Prevention.”

“[We are] already working with kids in our drug preventing program, but we wanted to bring the community into it,” Dr. James Heimdal, department head for health and exercise sciences, said. “The school programs are doing a good job, but to fight these kinds of issues you have to have everybody.”

Several programs have been established around Lincoln Parish to recognize and resolve the issues of youth in Lincoln Parish, Heimdal said.

“We have all come together and had about three or four organizational meetings so far,” Heimdal said. “If we take all our money and put it together, then we can really make a difference.”

The representatives will include parents, educators, business/civic leaders, clergy, media, law enforcement, students and governmental leaders.

“This represents another partnership between Tech and the university community,” Heimdal said. “Specifically this program will join Lincoln Parish together to create an environment for children to develop into happy, productive adults.”

Heimdal said Tech has its own prevention program titled “Choices.”

The purpose of the program is to reduce alcohol/drug consumption and violence among college students.

The program includes six staff members and 14 student volunteers.

Heimdal and Dr. Tommy Grafton, coordinator for Project Northland, have been working together as directors for the North Central Alliance Partners in Prevention Project.

Grafton has 36 years experience in drug prevention programs, and said he is excited to see different prevention agencies come together.

“This [North Central Alliance Partners in Prevention] unites the effort, rather than people going in different directions,” Grafton said. “The whole purpose of this grant is to reach as many youth in our community as possible.”

The grant has been awarded support from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, located in Rockville, Md.

“This is an umbrella agency which supplies money to a number of prevention causes, substance abuse being one of them,” Grafton said. 

Over the next five years, North Central Alliance Partners in Prevention will receive $100,000.

“This is a great opportunity,” Grafton said. “Because the grant is a continuation for five years, it gives the community time to bring its resources together and do something about the problem.”