Capacity Building

Project Name: Marin YOR

Partner Agencies (Subcontractors): Marin County Behavioral Health and Recovery Services, Marin County Office of Education, Tamalpais Union High School District, RxSafe Marin

Project Description: Our project involved conducting a needs assessment with community stakeholders to assess the feasibility of using high schools in Marin County as access points for identification and connection to services for OUD, anxiety, and depression.

Primary Contact:
Name: Robby Franceschini
Position: Director of Policy
Agency: BluePath Health
Email: robby.franceschini@bluepathhealth.com
Phone: (650) 823-4084

Summary: BluePath Health Project

Project Name: ‘The Plants that Nourish Us’

Lead Agency: ‘The Plants that Nourish Us,’ a DreamMaker Project of the Ink People Center for the Arts

Project Description: Our project empowers native youth with positive traditional culture experiences, traditional ecological knowledge, and outings to traditional homelands. Our community activities are designed to encourage resiliency, self-respect, knowledge, skills, and abilities. The connection we make between native youth, plant knowledge, and native languages provides culturally relevant, healthy alternatives, and relief from the pressures of stimulant, opioid, and other substance misuse. We revitalize youth participation in traditional activities, art, and science. Food sovereignty, health, self-worth, cultural appreciation, and expression all disrupt and counter the physical and mental health issues linked with substance misuse and addiction. We focus on youth of the Round Valley Indian Tribes.

Primary Contact:
Name: Perry Lincoln
Position: Founder
Agency: ‘The Plants that Nourish Us’ a DreamMaker Project of the Ink People Center for the Arts
Email: plantsthatnourishus@inkpeople.org
Phone: 530-382-5840

Website: www.inkpeople.org/dreammaker-data/plants-that-nourish-us

Project Name: Find Your Way

Partner Agencies:

• Sunrise Special Services Foundation
• Lake County Behavioral Health Services
• Clearlake Youth Center
• North Coast Opportunities
• Partnership HealthPlan of California
• Lake County Office of Education

Project Description: Hope Rising-SafeRx recognizes addiction as a disease and its mission is to reduce the harm the opioid crisis has had on Lake County, where the overdose rate is four times that of the California state average. SafeRx created The Find Your Way campaign through the first round of the Youth Opioid Response (YOR) grant. In YOR 2, SafeRx is building capacity and creating a Youth Advisory Board structure to inform local agencies and schools on gaps in outreach and connection to evidence-based treatment. It is of upmost importance that we address historical and intergenerational trauma and stigma with transitional aged youth and our partnering agencies. Through educational trainings, we wish to ensure that our organization and its partners have a foundation of equity and inclusion, before collaborating with a diverse group of transitional aged youth. Through outreach, social media, and the youth advisory board, SafeRx, along with behavioral health and education partners, are constructively discussing the pathways to success in reducing stigma and breaking down barriers to youth seeking support and evidence-based treatment.

Primary Contact:
Name: Justin Gaddy
Position: Project Director
Agency: Hope Rising Lake County
Email: justin@hoperisinglc.org
Phone: 310-745-4168

Website: www.hoperisinglc.org, www.findyourwayca.com

Project Name: Improving Access for Youth with Substance Use Disorder

Partner Agencies: Central Valley Health Foundation, Kings Canyon Unified School District

Project Description: From March 2021 to August 2022, Adventist Health Reedley collaborated with Kings Canyon Unified School District to better address opioid and stimulant misuse among youth living in the City of Reedley, a rural city in the Central Valley. Together, these two organizations are forming a youth advisory committee and a youth services network that will engage youth and key community partners alike. Through culturally informed training and outreach, they are raising awareness for substance use disorders (SUDs) and available services. Fundamental outcomes include improved screening and identification of SUDs, referrals to treatment, and connections between stakeholders. 

Primary Contact:
Name: Araceli Castillo
Position: Project Specialist
Agency: Adventist Health Reedley
Email: castila05@ah.org
Phone: 559-537-0053

YOR I Project Name: Strengthening School Response to Youth Opioid Use

Partner Agencies (Subcontractors): National Center for Youth Law, California Bridge Program, Pacific Southwest Addiction Technology Transfer Center

Project Description:

The purpose of this project was to reduce opioid deaths by helping schools and school-based health providers improve and expand access to a continuum of quality opioid-related services for youth. There were two YOR I goals: 

• Prevent opioid use among adolescent and transitional aged youth (TAY) across California through peer-to-peer health education in schools.
• Identify and treat adolescent and TAY using opioids by providing schools and school-based health providers with tools to screen for substance use, provide brief interventions, and link to effective treatment, including medication-assisted treatment. 

YOR II Project Name: Addressing Youth Substance Misuse

Partner Agencies: National Center for Youth Law and Two Feathers Native American Family Services

Project Description: The YOR II project aims continued to develop and provide tools and resources to adolescent and school health providers throughout California to significantly reduce and address substance misuse and substance use disorders (SUDs) amongst youth, particularly those in low-income, under-resourced, and Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities. We are doing this by: (1) ensuring that targeted school health providers in the three regions, as well as throughout California, are better equipped to identify and manage SUDs, especially those that involve opioids and stimulants; (2) facilitating access for more young people to age-appropriate, evidence-based early intervention and treatment; (3) surfacing innovative new strategies that work to prevent substance misuse and reduce the peer and community stigma associated with help-seeking for an SUD; and (4) helping reduce the disproportionate effect of prescription and illicit drugs on indigenous communities in California. We employ evidence-based practices and research indicating that schools and school-based health centers (SBHCs) represent an ideal location to embed these services. The project materials and trainings were available statewide with a focus on the Inland Empire, Central Valley, and Humboldt counties.

Primary Contact:
Name: Sierra Jue-Leong
Position: Project Director
Agency: California School-Based Health Alliance
Email: sjueleong@schoolhealthcenters.org
Phone: 510-268-1160

Website: www.schoolhealthcenters.org

Summary YOR I: California School-Based Health Alliance Project

Project Name: FNL YOR California

Partners: Tulare County Office of Education

Project Description: For their statewide project FNL YOR California engaged the statewide Friday Night Live youth development system in 50 of 58 counties to explore ways to increase protective factors and reduce risk factors for youth at risk of opioid use and addiction.  Help increase awareness and reduce stigma around MAT for youth. 

Primary Contact:
Name: Lynne Goodwin
Position: Administrator
Agency: CA FNL Partnership/Tulare County Office of Education
Email: lgoodwin@tcoe.org
Phone: (559) 733-6496

Summary: California Friday Night Live Project