On June 13th coalition coordinators, community members, and partners came together to show appreciation to coalition volunteers for their outstanding contributions over the past year. The event was hosted by Prevent Coalition in downtown Vancouver and celebrated efforts by community coalition volunteers throughout southwest Washington. Each coalition also gave special recognition and a certificate to volunteers who went above and beyond.

"We are so lucky and grateful for every volunteer" said event organizer Paula Linden, Coordinator with Prevent. She added, "This event is an exciting opportunity to connect with the region's volunteers and community partners."

Volunteers typically attend coalition meetings, provide input, help plan and implement events, and are a key factor in a community coalition's success. However, coalitions often struggle to find and keep volunteers, especially in rural areas. If you know someone living in Clark, Skamania, or Klickitat Counties who may be interested in joining a community coalition please have them contact us at preventcoalition.com.

Prevent thanks the local businesses that generously contributed to the enjoyment of the event: Hidden House Event Space, Gold Cup Coffee House, Bettyrose's Chocolate and Coffee, and Molina Healthcare. We also thank our fiscal agent ESD 112 and funding provider Washington Department of Health Youth Cannabis and Commercial Tobacco Prevention Program.

All Prevent Coalition podcasts can be found at preventcoalition.podbean.com or on Google Podcasts, the Apple Podcast app and other familiar streaming services. Episodes are also archived at preventcoalition.org/events/news/.

Season 2 Episodes:

• Episode 1 - Supporting Student Assistance Professionals
• Episode 2 - What's an ACH?
• Episode 3 - Tips for Working with Teens (NEW!)

Season 1 Episodes:

• Episode 0 - Welcome
• Episode 1 - Rural Network
• Episode 2 - Policy Change
• Episode 3 - Secure Your Cannabis
• Episode 4 - "Better You Bingo" with special guests from Clark County STASHA!
• Episode 5 - Sweet & Sour
• Episode 6 - New Coordinator Orientation

Consider adding the Prevent Coalition Podcast to your playlist! We're sharing stories and strategies to help coalitions and organizations reach their full potential.

With cigarette smoking on the decline, tobacco companies have shifted focus to “smokeless” tobacco products, including oral nicotine pouches that are gaining popularity among young people.

Read the full story at truthinitiative.org.

Washington State Community Connectors (WSCC) and partners developed a training to educate families about substance use disorder (SUD) and related treatment options across the state. This training is for parents, family members, and caregivers who are interested in learning how to support their loved ones with SUD.

Participants will learn up-to-date information about SUD, addiction and its effects on the adolescent brain, skills for families navigating their relationship with someone with SUD, and systems navigation. This training is grounded in research and information supported by Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services (SAMHSA), including their training and technical assistance partners.

Training details

Dates: July 15-18 or August 5-8

Meeting time: 9:00 am– 1:00 pm daily (PT)

Location: Online

Duration: A 16-hour course split into 4 days of 4-hour modules.

Attendance is required for all 4 days.

More information: SUD Family Navigator Training website

Registration: Register

Last year the major U.S. tobacco companies were required by a federal court to post "corrective statements" at over 200,000 stores across the country. These eye-catching signs tell the public the truth about the deadly consequences of smoking.

A recent report found that the signs are not displayed in at least 16% of the stores that are supposed to have them! To improve enforcement and hold the tobacco industry accountable, the public plays an important role in reporting violations. Community coalitions, prevention clubs, and individuals can help by doing the following:

1. Look for places where tobacco is sold, like gas stations, grocery and convenience stores.
2. Look for a corrective-statement sign near the tobacco products.
3. If there's no sign, report it at TobaccoSignTipline.com or text (877) 749-8477 and an auditor will look into it.

Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids provides social media resources to spread awareness about the corrective statements and runs the tipline for reporting noncompliance. Individuals can also report a violation to the Washington State LCB.

Nominations are now being accepted for the 2024 Washington State Prevention Awards of Excellence! Making a nomination is easy, just complete the nomination survey by Wednesday, July 17, 2024.

You can nominate a colleague, young person, program, or organization in the following award categories:

• Tribal and urban Indian prevention efforts
• Youth leader
• Young adult leader
• Prevention professional, lifetime achievement, and/or community prevention supporter
• Community coalition and/or community prevention group
• Contributions to prevention by an organization, business, or agency
• Early career prevention professional

Award recipients will be announced and celebrated during the awards ceremony at the 2024 Prevention Summit in October. For more information, check out the overview document or visit the 2024 Prevention Awards of Excellence page at preventionsummit.org.

HearMeWA is a program for young Washingtonians up to age 25 provided by the WA State Attorney General’s Office (AGO). Youth experiencing stress, anxiety, bullying, violent threats, sexual abuse, or anything that makes life hard, can connect with a crisis counselor for secure, free support 24/7.

Youth can request help for themselves, friends, or classmates online, by phone, or in the app to be connected with a trained crisis counselor within minutes. Adults concerned about youth can also send a tip online or by phone at 888-537-1634.

Learn more about this resource at hearmewa.org.

The award-winning mental health communications campaign How Right Now (HRN) is designed to strengthen the emotional well-being and resiliency of people experiencing stress, grief and loss through targeted messaging that links to support resources.

The current focus of the initiative is on understanding and supporting the needs of public-school K-12 teachers and school staff who are encountering high levels of stress, burnout and grief. Resources include video, social media assets, links to mental health resources, and more.

Visit cdcfoundation.org/howrightnow to access the resources.

The Learning Labs is a repository for webinars and presentations on a variety of topics as well as self-guided learning courses. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or a new employee, the Learning Labs provide a dynamic platform to acquire new information, hone your skills, stay updated on trends, and elevate your expertise in the prevention field.

Visit nationalcoalitioninstitute.org/learning-labs.

Kohl’s and Healthier Generation provide a toolkit with creative ways to feel healthy at home. Parents and caregivers can use the toolkit to engage in planning healthy activities that prioritize mental health and well-being for themselves and their family. The toolkit includes activities in English and Spanish.

A hub of Kohl's Healthy at Home resources can be found at healthiergeneration.org.

This resource guide from SAMHSA offers information and resources to help practitioners in health and social service systems implement best practices to engage and help families and caregivers support their lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) children. It can help practitioners understand the critical role of family acceptance and rejection in contributing to the health and well-being of LGBT adolescents.

Click the image with this story to download the guide from the SAMHSA Publications and Digital Products website.

The National LGBTQI+ Cancer Network developed the Outlast Tobacco Social Media Toolkit which includes 16 graphics that can be posted on social media. The toolkit consists of graphics in 3 file formats, and for each of the graphics you’ll find two sample captions to pair alongside when posting. Each caption ends with a call to action, inviting folks to visit the LGBTQI+ cessation page.

Visit cancer-network.org/outlast-tobacco to learn more.

New organic social content in English and Spanish is now available to support outreach for the next fiscal year (July 2024 to June 2025). There are dedicated posts for each month uploaded in separate folders under the “Organic Social” sections of the toolkit.

Commercial tobacco prevention partners can access an online partner toolkit to assist with promoting the campaign in their communities. Current assets include videos, a radio ad, banner ads in multiple sizes, organic and paid social ads, posters, billboards, and campaign background materials (talking points, backgrounder, and style guide). Assets are available in English and Spanish.

You can check out the campaign at chooseyouwa.org and the partner toolkit resources are available at socialpresskit.com/choose-you.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and FDA/ETP recently released a fact sheet on how to safely dispose of e-cigarettes. They hope to educate the public about the importance of safe disposal of e-cigarettes.

The fact sheet is available for download on the EPA website. Click on the image with this story.

The Washington State Legislature wrapped up the 2024 session on March 7th. However, anytime is a good time to better understand the legislative process. Grant County Health District developed a toolkit just for that purpose with support and endorsement from the Youth Cannabis and Commercial Tobacco Prevention Program (YCCTPP).

This toolkit is meant to serve as an educational resource and includes a compilation of knowledge, definitions, experiences, and guidance from several well-known players on the WA State prevention scene.

Click here (or the image) to view the toolkit.

The 2024 Rural Conference will take place on September 25 & 26, 2024 at the Yakima Convention Center, Yakima, WA. This will be the second Rural Conference and excitement is growing!

Registration and agenda are available now on the 2024 conference web page. Visit preventcoalition.org/ruralconference.

If you have questions, please feel free to contact us at [email protected].

Whether you have recently joined the Rural Network or are still thinking about it there is a resource available that will answer your commonly asked questions - our New Member Orientation Guide!

This guide describes our mission, vision, funding, 7 core principles, who we serve, and how to get involved. It also describes what our meetings are like and why you should join!

Learn all the details at smore.com/8eqhp

If you are interested in joining one or more activities below, please contact Abigail Wells, Rural Network Coordinator ([email protected]) or [email protected]. More information about these activities and the work of the Rural Network is available on the Rural Network website.

www.preventcoalition.org/rural

The full membership meets monthly on the last Tuesday from 2-3:30pm. This meeting is meant to engage network members, build connections across isolated communities, provide training to members and bring in guest speakers, we do policy work and have guest legislators come to meet rural volunteers, and we also do community-of-practice style activities where members share their experiences with one another or tackle tough issues collaboratively. These meetings are usually held virtually and open to the public, anyone is welcome to join.

This group meets monthly to prepare, design and plan for a statewide gathering of rural prevention professionals which happens every 2 years in Yakima, called the Rural Conference. We had our first ever conference last year convening our network members and the goal is to expand on that experience and make it even bigger and better than it already was. This committee gets to design theme, branding elements, activities that happen at the conference, agenda, speakers and more. This workgroup is hosted by the Rede Group, an event-planning subcontractor of Rural Network. The committee meets on a rotating schedule based on volunteer availability each month.

This is our newest Committee. It is tasked with reflecting and brainstorming about member engagement. The committee will discuss recruiting for opportunities, barriers to Rural Network participation, strategies and activities to build capacity and membership across rural communities, as well as feedback received about participation. The Engagement Committee meets the second Wednesday of each month from 10am-11am.

We are looking for more members! If you are interested in participating, please reach out to Abigail Wells at [email protected].

Our leadership team guides the work of the Rural Network, reflects on action plan progress, plans monthly meeting agenda, and evaluates the progress and outcomes of the program. We’re looking for more members to guide the work and get involved to increase our Steering capacity and keep the work sustained/strong. We meet monthly on the 1st Thursday from 10am-11:30am (PT) and are hoping to add 3-4 more members.

We have a Toolkit Workgroup meeting that is currently on pause due to funding delays and contract negotiations. This committee will eventually be run by the Montana Institute and is in charge of creating a Positive Community Norms (PCN) Campaign for rural communities statewide. Last year, this committee updated the Find Your Good campaign and created new messaging/media based on a rural youth survey they created and promoted.

Our staff holds a placeholder for an hour every month for people to come and brainstorm, bounce ideas off one another, or otherwise receive support or Technical Assistance from any/all our staff team. Sometimes you need a like-minded Coordinator to generate ideas, double check their action plan, troubleshoot a difficult sector representative, etc. We’re here to support you at these monthly time slots. Email Abigail Wells ([email protected]) or [email protected] to reserve this time with us.

Rural Network Meeting

Tuesday, July 23, 2024

2-3:30 p.m.

Online conference call

Rural Steering Committee

Thursday, August 1, 2024

10:00-11:30 a.m.

Online conference call

Develop the plan, guide the implementation, evaluate the results.

Rural Network Office Hours

Wednesday, August 8, 2024

1-2 p.m.

Online conference call

For Rural Network members to receive technical assistance

Rural Prevention Conference

September 25-26, 2024

In person, Yakima Convention Center, Yakima, WA

Event website: www.preventcoalition.org/ruralconference

Learn the latest science, data, and equity initiatives in rural prevention. Strategize and network with other rural prevention peers during this two-day event!

All times are Pacific Standard Time (PST)

Relevant events not sponsored by Prevent Coalition:

The Montana Institute

Expanding the Circle: Creating Space for Hope, Health, and Connection

In-Person, Yellowstone Conference Center at the Big Sky Resort, Big Sky, Montana

Also available via livestream

July 16-19, 2024

Cost: In-Person: $1,095. Virtual only, $525

How to Register: Visit the Montana Institute website for more information

Reshape the way you approach community health and well-being. Learn how to foster hope, cultivate health, and strengthen connections to build healthier, safer, and more positive communities for all. Presenters include Dr. Jason Kilmer, Dr. Christina Bethell, Dr. Stacey Litam, and Dr. Jeff Linkenbach.

CADCA

2024 Mid-Year Training Institute

In-person, Hilton Hotel, Chicago, Illinois

July 14-18, 2024

Cost: member $845, non-member $1055

Registration and information: Visit event website

CADCA brings together industry leaders, federal partners, CADCA staff, master trainers, and coalition leaders to share cutting-edge strategies, best practices, and innovative solutions. Whether you're a seasoned professional or a passionate advocate, this event offers a unique opportunity to expand your knowledge, sharpen your skills, and network with like-minded peers.

Rede Group

ToPCon - A Commercial Tobacco Prevention Conference

Virtual

July 22-24, 2024

Cost: $150 ($100 Students)

Information and registration: Click here to view event website

This national conference features emerging topics in commercial tobacco prevention along with a separate day focusing on the fundamentals of the work. With dynamic content for professionals at any stage in their career, ToPCon will be a site for dialogue around prevention best practices, strategies for policy change, health equity, working with community, and much more.

National Prevention Network

NPN Conference 2024

In-person, Arizona Grand Resort, Phoenix, AZ

August 13-15, 2024

Cost: $899

Registration: Visit website: https://npnconference.org/

The purpose of the NPN Conference is to highlight the latest research in the substance use prevention field. It provides a forum for prevention professionals, coalition leaders, researchers, and federal partners to share research, best practices and promising evaluation results for the purpose of integrating research into prevention practice.

Washington State Division of Behavioral Health & Recovery

Coalition Leadership Institute

In-person, Washington L&I Conference Center - 7273 Linderson Way SW, Tumwater, WA 98501

August 21st, 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM - August 22nd, 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM (end time may change)

Registration: Please visit the event webpage for more information.

Required training for all CPWI Coalition Coordinators, but anyone involved with a prevention coalition is welcome to attend. Institute objectives: learn about the latest news and information from state prevention leaders, researchers, and prevention peers; grow into new skills and interest areas; and connect with others doing similar work in other communities across Washington State.

PTTC

2024 Northwest Prevention Leadership Academy

Virtual Sessions - 1pm-2:30pm (PT) on July 24, September 3 and 24

In-person, Tacoma, WA

September 11-12, 2024

Cost: Free!

Registration: Click here to learn more on PTTC website.

Participants must attend all virtual and in-person sessions to receive 20-hour certificate of participation. The academy will explore leadership principles for prevention coalitions using a set of Liberating Structures; practical methods and tools designed to foster active participation and create innovation among team members, collaborators, and communities.

Washington State Public Health Association

2024 Annual Conference

In-person, Yakima Valley, WA

October 9-11, 2024

Cost: Early bird rates, $450 member, $585 Non-member. Discounted rates available.

Registration and event information: Visit event website.

Did you know that this is WSPHA's 90th anniversary?! This year they will celebrate the roots of public health in social movements and collectively consider the past to pave the way for the future. This year's theme is, "Cultivating Social Justice: Past, Present, & Future". Attendees will find an engaging lineup of plenaries, workshops, and networking opportunities.

Washington State Prevention Summit 2024

In-person, The Westin Seattle, Seattle, WA

October 30-31, 2024

Registration and event information: Visit event website.

The Prevention Summit is an enriching training and networking opportunity for youth, volunteers, and professionals engaged in health promotion and the prevention of substance misuse, violence, and other high-risk behaviors, in a setting that promotes cultural humility. The Summit provides high-quality workshops, forums, and hands-on learning opportunities designed to meet a variety of needs, including professional development for prevention professionals. Summit includes a separate track for youth.

NW PTTC

Ethics in Prevention Foundations

(Virtually moderated 6-hour course)

Repeats monthly, visit website for next session!

No Fee, Limited Space Available

This two-week, asynchronous moderated course, adapted from the original SAMHSA Center for Application of Prevention Technologies (CAPT) course, explores the six principles of the Prevention Code of Ethics. The course also introduces a decision-making process to help practitioners apply this code to a variety of ethical dilemmas, and an online discussion area to facilitate discussion with other course participants. Course meets requirements for prevention specialist credentialing.

View ongoing training and events at https://pttcnetwork.org.

NW PTTC

Special Topics in Prevention of Substance Misuse

(Self-paced courses)

A large selection of online, on-demand courses that explore special topics in prevention of substance misuse that will better-equip prevention professionals & coalitions to serve their communities.

Access the courses via the HealtheKnowledge.org website.

NW PTTC

Pharmacology for Prevention Professionals

(Self-paced course)

Explore the basics of how substances impact major brain regions and the acute and chronic symptoms associated with different substances. Certificates of 1.5 hours for each of the following four courses: Basics of Pharmacology and Alcohol, Basics of Pharmacology and Opioids, Basics of Pharmacology and Psychostimulants (Cocaine & Methamphetamine), and Basics of Pharmacology and Cannabis.

Learn more and enroll via the HealtheKnowledge.org website.

CADCA

Training and Events Website

Free!

Explore the library of webinars available, both archived and coming soon. Hosted by CADCA trainers covering topics related to starting and operating a community coalition, prevention, and more.

Visit the CADCA TRAINING & EVENTS website.

CADCA

Webinar Wednesday Series

Free!

Register for an upcoming Wednesday webinar or view archived recordings on your own schedule.

Visit the CADCA WEBINAR WEDNESDAY SERIES website.

Supported by fiscal agent ESD 112, Prevent Coalition is a regional coalition formed in 2003 to increase collaboration, awareness, and reduce youth substance use in Southwest Washington. Prevent Coalition also implements initiatives for rural communities across Washington state. As a community mobilizer, our coalition creates a culture promoting healthy choices; advocates for policies and regulations that protect, empower and nurture youth; and facilitates positive opportunities for youth to be involved and thrive.

Email: [email protected]
Website: www.PreventCoalition.org
Location: 2500 NE 65th Ave., Vancouver, WA, USA
Phone: 360-952-3457
Facebook: Facebook.com/PreventCoalition
Twitter: @supportyouthnow