Newtown, PA – The Council Rock Coalition for Healthy Youth (CRCHY) has been awarded an $8,000 mini-grant to implement a comprehensive opioid misuse prevention media campaign to Bucks County residents. The grant was one of 19 grants, totaling $152,000, offered by the Commonwealth Prevention Alliance (CPA) through a competitive process to qualified Pennsylvania-based organizations. The goal of program is to support the CPA in broadening the reach of the existing PA Stop Opiate Abuse campaign across the state, which was developed with funds from the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD).
“We are honored to partner with the CPA which is our state-level substance abuse prevention organization to increase the number of people that are exposed to the important prevention messages of the PA Stop Opiate Abuse Campaign. Pennsylvania is among the 10 states with the highest opioid use and overdose rates and here in Bucks County, we saw an 89 percent increase in overdose deaths within the past two years. In 2017 alone, we lost two people every three days to this epidemic. We want to spread the message that all of us can help to reverse this trend by not sharing prescription opioid medications, getting rid of them when we don’t need them, learning how to recognize the signs of addiction, and how to get help.” said Debbie Moskovitz, CRCHY Program Director.
The CRCHY effort will target citizens in the Council Rock School District and beyond, using a mix of strategies to include a video PSA featuring state and federal representatives, direct mailings, and web-based advertisements through the Newtown and Northampton “Patch”; a hyperlocal online news and discussion platform and BUCKSCOUNTYALIVE.COM, as well as other print and social media strategies. The media effort will run from approximately mid-August through the end of December for all organizations receiving funds throughout the state.
For more information about the Council Rock Coalition for Healthy Youth efforts to reduce substance abuse, or to learn about the Council Rock Parenting Academy or Raising Great Kids Series, visit: www.CRCHY.org. For information and resources, and to learn more about the Commonwealth Prevention Alliance Campaign to Stop Opiate Abuse, visit: www.pastop.org.
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About the Council Rock Coalition for Youth
The Council Rock Coalition for Healthy Youth (CRCHY) is a group of concerned community members whose mission is to mobilize and engage all sectors of our communities to work together to reduce risk behaviors of our youth, helping them to reach their full potential in a healthy environment. CRCHY has been serving the Council Rock School District and the neighboring communities for over 12 and partners with many groups to achieve this end: health care, schools, parents, volunteer organizations, youth organization such as SADD chapters, faith-based institutions, government, law enforcement, business, and the media. CRCHY is a recipient of the federally-funded Drug Free Communities Support Program Grant through the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy.
