Press Release- Grant Award

Plymouth Youth Development Collaborative Secures $125,000 Grant from White House Drug Policy Office

Contact:  Beth Stone- (508)- 584-8120

September 22, 2017

 

BROCKTON – The Plymouth Youth Development Collaborative (PYDC) has been awarded a $125,000 Drug-Free Communities Support Program grant by the White House Drug Policy Office in cooperation with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz announced.

The PYDC grant was announced this week as part of 719 Drug-Free Communities Support Program grants that totaled $89 million, the largest-ever number of DFC grantees in a single year since DFC’s founding. The grants are designed to provide local community coalitions funding to prevent youth substance use, including prescription drugs, marijuana, tobacco and alcohol. PYDC serves the community of Plymouth and the coalition goals are to establish and strengthen community collaboration in support of local efforts to prevent youth substance use. PYDC will focus its DFC grant efforts on reducing youth marijuana and opioid use and will achieve those goals by implementing the following strategies:

• Train law enforcement, schools, and youth-serving agencies on Adverse Childhood Experiences and how exposure to trauma increases a child’s risk of misusing substances
• Increase youth and parental perception of harm towards marijuana
• Reduce access to prescription drugs
• Collect and assess youth substance use data
• Provide information to the community and Plymouth region on current youth substance use trends and best practices
• Increase collaboration by engaging and recruiting diverse community stakeholders
• Increase PYDC’s sustainability by training PYDC staff and volunteers
The Plymouth County Drug Abuse Task Force, founded by DA Cruz and Sheriff Joseph McDonald, dedicated grants and sponsored projects staff members to assist PYDC in their efforts to secure this DFC grant.

“I want to commend Superintendent Maestas and PYDC for the time and effort they put into securing this grant,” DA Cruz said. “Working in concert together with PYDC and sharing resources, data and expertise, was precisely the sort of collaboration we had in mind when we created the Drug Abuse Task Force. The children and parents of the Plymouth schools community are fortunate to have PYDC advocating for them, and will surely benefit from this comprehensive strategy against youth substance misuse.”

Plymouth Schools Superintendent Gary Maestas said, “The Plymouth Public Schools are very excited to be the recipient of the Drug Free Communities grant. By receiving this grant, the Plymouth Schools and our collaborative partners can further our mission of creating sustainable health minded opportunities and programming for the youth of Plymouth.”

PYDC, began in 2004 as a subcommittee within the Greater Plymouth Community Health Network Area and became an independent coalition the following year. Plymouth Superintendent Maestas recognized the need for Plymouth to develop its own sustainable collaborative and together with the Plymouth County District Attorney, Plymouth Police and the state legislative delegation, Maestas provided the infrastructure to start PYDC. From 2005 to present, PYDC’s mission has been to strategically prevent and reduce substance misuse, increase protective factors that support a healthy community, and enhance community collaboration in Plymouth.

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