The Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin (AHW) Endowment awarded $250,000 over two years to reduce the prevalence of alcohol and other drug abuse among youth in northwest Wisconsin’s Rusk County. The Medical College of Wisconsin is the steward of the AHW Endowment as it works to catalyze health improvement within the state.
Indianhead Community Action Agency, an anti-poverty organization promoting self-sufficiency in 17 rural counties, is the lead community partner on the award. The agency will work with Dr. Sadhana Dharmapuri, assistant professor of pediatrics at MCW, and a number of additional community partners to reduce youth alcohol and other drug abuse in Rusk County through direct intervention and youth mobilization.
In the first area of direct intervention, project partners will expand a substance abuse program called Teen Intervene, which currently is being tested with more than 50 Rusk County students. Teen Intervene has been used to counsel more than 75,000 youth around the world about their use of alcohol and other drugs, and researchers have found the program can reduce participants’ frequency of substance use and symptoms of abuse and dependence.
Project partners also will engage youth in a Teen Leadership Academy focused on building skills for promoting social change. The academy’s participants will investigate methods for enhancing youth development in Rusk County and advocate new practices to reduce the community’s rate of youth substance abuse.
The other community partners working on this project are: Rusk County Department of Health and Human Services Division of Public Health, Rusk County Restorative Youth Programs, Rusk County Youth Council and Wisconsin Fresh Start. Angela Stanley, PsyD, assistant professor of pediatrics (adolescent medicine) at MCW, is also a partner on the project.
