This year’s We Are The Majority Rally marks the progression of young leaders in prevention: We Believe. We Persist. We Prevent. This theme represents how a young person moves from believing in the value of a healthy lifestyle to persisting in the face of adversity to preventing substance misuse among their peers.  

—Josh Poole, Ohio Youth-Led Prevention Network Youth Council

For Josh, “We Believe” is a simple idea with limitless optimism and hope. Like a seed, that idea grows into resolve to live a healthy lifestyle and, eventually, to encourage and help others to live life without drug use. 

Like most good work, youth-led prevention starts with a belief—belief in a healthy lifestyle, in the value of prevention, and even in the idea of a better world. Like a seed, that idea grows into resolve to live a healthy lifestyle and, eventually, to encourage and help others to live life without drug use.  

That’s why we’re celebrating the belief of those young people who find value in healthy living at this year’s We Are The Majority Rally. This event is hosted every year by the Ohio Youth-Led Prevention Network at Prevention Action Alliance with funding from the Ohio Department of Mental Health & Addiction Services. We’ll challenge negative stereotypes of young people and raise awareness around the fact that the majority of youth choose not to use drugs and alcohol.

Registration is easy and free, but space is limited. Learn more about the WATM Rally and reserve your spot by registering at preventionactionalliance.org/watm. 

The Big Bowl Vote is a nationwide survey of young people about the ads they see on the Super Bowl. The teens who participate in the Big Bowl Vote rate the ads they remember seeing and share why they like or remember those ads. Every year, ads for alcohol have rated highly, if not at the very top, of teens’ favorite ads.

In order to make the Big Bowl Vote easier to administer and more effective, we’ve created new ways you can survey your students. 

In addition to the paper forms included in the BBV Playbook, you can use Google Forms to collect data from your students. Administering this new survey will be easy for any classroom with access to technology. It’s a multiple-choice survey that will simulate the same questions as the paper survey.

If you’re using the paper form included in the BBV Playbook, you’ll want to use our survey collector. It makes your tallying, and the reporting we do, easier.

Participating in the Big Bowl Vote is simple: 

We are dedicated to our mission of leading healthy communities in the prevention of substance misuse and the promotion of mental health wellness. That means we rely on advocates for prevention like you to get involved directly in your communities. To aid you, we’ve created several fact sheets and infographics that you can download on our website.

These resources cover a wide array of topics from a basic overview of prevention to how coalitions can capitalize on Tobacco 21’s momentum to how colleges and universities can get involved in prevention. Feel free to distribute these resources without modification on social media, by email, at community fairs, on your website, and in any other way you can think of to parents, teachers, politicians, social service workers, business leaders, faith leaders, and others in your community.

As part of the OhioMHAS Prevention Workforce Development education series, Prevention Action Alliance is hosting three regional problem gambling trainings across the state. These trainings will take place in Dayton, Akron, and Bowling Green, and there is no cost to register. Please see the date, time, and location details below before registering to ensure you select the correct ticket. Each attendee will receive six total hours of continuing education, three of which will be prevention ethics.

As gambling continues to expand throughout Ohio professionals are often unaware of the impact it has, or the resources available. This training will provide an overview of gambling, the connection between gambling and substance use, gaming-to-gambling, and and an examination of current and emerging trends.

This one day, free event will also include three hours of Ohio Chemical Dependency Prevention Board approved prevention ethics!

Tuesday, March 10

9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

230 Webster St.

Dayton, Oh 45402

Thursday, March 12

9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.

1835 Market St.

Akron, OH 44313

Thursday, March 19

9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

1867 Research Dr.

Bowling Green, OH 43402

For school-based mental health professionals, the Great Lakes MHTTC School-Based Mental Health Supplement is excited to announce an opportunity to participate in a Great Lakes region Second Step Leadership Institute. The one-day training is followed by a year of support and peer networking. The face-to-face event is normally offered in Seattle, but it will be held in Minneapolis later this year. Learn more by joining an informational webinar on January 23! 

The Great Lakes MHTTC January line-up for prevention professionals includes the January 29 webinar, Prevention as Partners in a Recovery-Oriented System of Care. Hear from Great Lakes MHTTC Prevention Manager, Chuck Klevgaard, on the important role that prevention plays in ROSC systems. Find out more and register here. 

For many, January is a time to plan our calendars for the entire year ahead. On February 5, Mark Sanders, LCSW will host a free webinar: Engaging African Americans in Substance Use Disorder Treatment.

The Ohio Departments of Mental Health and Addiction Services and Developmental Disabilities are pleased to announce the Seventh Annual Trauma-Informed Care Summit. DAY ONE (May 19th) will feature best or promising practices in assessment, treatment, support and collaboration to respond to trauma across systems and in particular, presentations about programs and projects that demonstrate collaboration across systems and that can be replicated in any area of the state are desired; and, DAY TWO (May 20th) will feature promising practices in responding to family and intergenerational trauma, incorporating cultural values and characteristics, and are intentional about practices that embrace shared learning and uplift cultural wellness.

New to this year’s Summit on May 18 will be a day-long pre-conference featuring eight learning communities focused on a variety of topics. The learning communities will be designed for participants to walk away with tools and resources to implement trauma-informed strategies in their communities and/or agencies. (More details coming).

Registration is targeted to open in February!

OhioMHAS, in partnership with the Problem Gambling Network of Ohio and Ohio for Responsible Gambling, will host the 17th Annual Ohio Problem Gambling Conference on Feb. 20-21 at the Nationwide Hotel and Conference Center in Lewis Center, Ohio. This year’s conference will bring together national experts, state leaders, and local innovators in problem gambling prevention, intervention, treatment, recovery, research, administration and responsible gambling. To learn more about the Problem Gambling Network of Ohio, and the conference, click here.

PreventionFIRST! is hiring a program coordinator to coordinate all two-way communication and support strategies for youth empowerment and other issue-specific work related to the identified local conditions targeted for change and in alignment with the strategic plan. 

Did you know that by shopping at Kroger you could support Prevention Action Alliance at no additional cost to you? 

Kroger Community Rewards donates to local organizations based on the shopping you do. When you check out with your Kroger Plus Card, contributions to Prevention Action Alliance will be made automatically and at no cost to you.

To start, you’ll need to apply for a Kroger Plus Card in your local Kroger store. If you already have a Kroger Plus Card, you can log into or create a digital account and name Prevention Action Alliance as your participating nonprofit. 

Even if you’ve signed up in the past, you may need to re-designate Prevention Action Alliance as your nonprofit. Registrations are good for one year before you must reapply. 

If you shop on Amazon, please consider making Prevention Action Alliance the nonprofit you support through AmazonSmile. 

AmazonSmile is operated by Amazon and lets customers enjoy the same selection of products, prices, and features as on Amazon. When customers shop on AmazonSmile, the AmazonSmile Foundation will donate 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases to nonprofits. 

Selecting Prevention Action Alliance as the nonprofit you want to support is as easy as clicking here. You can also go to AmazonSmile.com, log in or create an account, and go to Your Account. From there, select Change Your Amazon Smile Charity. Type “Prevention Action Alliance” into the search bar, and then click “Select” on the next page. 

Questions? Comments? Suggestions?