 And thank you for joining us for Prevention Day and the presentation of the 2019 Prevention Champion Awards. This annual event is organized by Prevention Works Vermont, which is an organization that works with the 23 substance misuse prevention coalitions in the state to raise awareness and promote good policies statewide. I'm Lori Augustiniak and I serve as the coordinator for Prevention Works Vermont. I'm frequently asked if Prevention Works, then why do we still have so many problems with alcohol, nicotine, marijuana, and other drugs? Many of us remember the 1990s when our most urgent problem was young people dying and alcohol related car crashes and youth tobacco rates were soaring. At that time, the state of Vermont rose to tackle those challenges with cross-sector collaboration, youth leadership development, law enforcement trying new tactics, and the rise of coalitions. We realized that the environment that kids are raised in affects the choices that they make. So we changed the environment in many strategic ways and rates for both alcohol related fatalities and smoking dropped significantly. But the culture changes and now we're facing a new landscape with marijuana and smoking cigarettes has given way to jeweling. It seems there's always a new industry ready to move in and sell habits to our young people and usually ones that do not enhance their lives. So that is the power of prevention. Regardless of what our culture, the media, or policymakers throw at us, we identify the emerging issues in our community and like the Avengers, we gather our team of community partners to neutralize the risk. I don't want to get too political this morning but we are at the state house and no one can be near the state house these days without the issue of marijuana commercialization coming up. Earlier this month prevention works released a statement on the commercialization of marijuana and I'd like to take a moment to readdress that statement now. Prevention works Vermont and Vermont's prevention coalitions are opposed to the creation of a commercial system for retail sales of recreational marijuana and clearly want to refute statements that commercialization of marijuana is needed to provide tax dollars for prevention services. It is true that the prevention system in Vermont is underfunded and lacks resources to implement strategies with the necessary frequency, intensity, and duration to adequately prevent substance misuse in our state. However, taxation and regulation that allows for commercialization is not good prevention. Our opposition to commercialization is not rooted in morality or outdated anti-drug ideology. Reducing marijuana use by youth and adults is essential to improving the health, education, and productivity of Vermonters. Vermont's prevention coalitions have been at the forefront of addressing emerging alcohol and other drug issues and we will continue to address the drug issues that confront our neighbors. We invite Vermont's policymakers to demonstrate solidarity with our work by ensuring that adequate investment in public safety, research, and prevention precedes any further changes in the legal status of marijuana. In the past 20 years prevention has become a science but it's not a secret. We know what works and we look forward to our state doing more of what works and less of what hurts public health. I would now like to introduce Commissioner of Health Dr. Mark Levine who clearly understands the power of prevention and is an articulate and compassionate advocate about substance use disorder issues and substance misuse prevention. Thank you for being here Dr. Levine. Thank you as well and good morning everyone, good morning Governor Scott, good morning congressional partners and all of our allies in prevention and especially our champions who we are here today to honor and thank. I likewise will not be political but I will say that I can guarantee almost that everyone in this crowd is pro-prevention. It's very hard to come up with an anti-prevention coalition so it's great to be in front of a friendly crowd. We all know that prevention reduces the risk that contribute to alcohol, tobacco and other drug misuse and promotes healthy lifestyles and healthy communities. In fact that was one of my most cherished beliefs in my career in general internal medicine and it was my frequent message to my patients as well as an opportunity for many referrals to community resources to help these patients with the hard work usually involved behavioral change. So it should come as no surprise that prevention is one of the foundational precepts of public health. It's a core goal and as is developing the means to achieve it. It's in fact almost an expectation that in any discussion that I have with the governor, with the legislature, with the citizens of Vermont the importance of prevention will obviously be stressed. Often people do not tire of hearing my message but actually to the contrary the good news is the message is actually contagious and now others engage with us in the health department about prevention because they understand that we are right and they want to learn more. This public health effort takes all of us working together in innovative partnerships and coalitions in every community in Vermont and this is because we experienced as a state and all too often on a deeply personal level the terrible toll that diseases like obesity and chronic medical conditions lead to and certainly the impact of substance use disorders and addiction. This latter is one of the most difficult and tragic complex public health challenges we have seen. Now prevention is not a one size fits all approach. It involves whole communities and systems and it takes an all hands on deck approach to solve and serve a population that are as diverse in their needs and as in the approaches we must take to meet them. We've long recognized substance use disorder as a lifelong chronic disease and key to addressing this is to do what we can to keep people from starting on that road in the first place. Prevention is far more than a classroom lecture and we're far beyond the just say no campaign. Our approach has been to build a system in which we're all vested in successful prevention, intervention, treatment and recovery efforts. The advantage we have just to make up a phrase is prevention works. Prevention is the most cost effective way to address substance use issues before they start to become more severe. Every dollar invested in prevention saves 10 to 18 dollars in costs related to health care, criminal activity and lost productivity. Not to mention the emotional and mental health of every person who's positively impacted. We are making progress slowly but surely but it really does take a village. We have prevention at the health system level, educating health care providers about the importance of finding alternatives to opioid medications. And the dramatic decline we've seen in prescriptions for opioids to opioid naive individuals. We have prevention at the community and school level, providing school based services and community prevention grants, building regional prevention partnerships to prevent and reduce alcohol and drug use among teens and young adults. And we have prevention at the level of the health department's district offices, running a dedicated team of prevention consultants who help their communities with local efforts and policies. We're stemming this tide but we need to continue to be sharp and continue to be innovative. We recently had Visit Us in Vermont, a team who were not actually from Iceland but actually spoke to the Iceland model and we've actually had a team go to Iceland. And they were working to understand what are the various responses to stress that young people were using. For example, and this is very much oversimplifying things, people you could call risk takers opted for methamphetamines, while others who fit a different profile gravitated towards substances that were more sedating like heroin or alcohol. This is fascinating work that really explores replacing substance use with the more natural highs or stimuli that sports can provide, that sound after school activities can provide. What our previous visitors from Finland called hobbies. The work of our champions and all of you is also reinforced through resources such as parentupvermont.org where parents and others can go to get tips and supports for how to talk with their kids about alcohol, marijuana and other drugs. And our current do your part campaign for safe disposal of medications contributed to the amazing results we again saw this past take-back day with the results again measured in tons and not pounds of picked up medication. All of our work is data driven and it informs what we do and is a resource for our partners and our local coalitions. I'm excited about the newest effort for which I left a pamphlet on the table called PACE Vermont which stands for Policy and Communication Evaluation. PACE attempts to get us real time longitudinal data by reaching out to young people to better understand and improve the impact of policies and communication campaigns on their substance use beliefs and behaviors. And that's really what prevention is all about, engagement, whole community systems of care, education and support and being there at the point of decisions. But I want to stress it is very hard work but it's also not rocket science. It's very doable work, it's very understandable, often it's very intuitive work and very passionate work for everyone who's engaged in it. And results do begin to validate the time and effort invested often in just a few years, not in decades or generations. So it's truly an honor for me to work in a state of people dedicated to this effort. And speaking of our state, I'm pleased to introduce one of my and your strongest partners in all things prevention, someone who I've told to his face that he is a wonderful mentor and model for what being a prevention governor really should be, Governor Phil Scott. Thank you, Mark, for those kind words. It's great to be here today. I think the best part of what I'm seeing right now is that we're all together here. It's not always the case when we're in this particular room, but we're all here together and I see Republicans, Democrats, progressives and independents alike all coming together for a common goal. And I think that that's the best part of what I'm seeing thus far. So I want to thank Prevention Works for hosting this event and bringing everyone together and all of you for working to protect the health and well-being of Vermonters across our state. Your role in preventing substance misuse and in shining a light on this issue is so critical. Addiction has touched every community and every family in Vermont in some way. Nearly every one of us has felt the impact of the opioid epidemic. And if you don't think it has, you probably just don't know it yet and just aren't aware. This epidemic isn't biased or partisan. It's not just a city problem or a young people problem or a low-income problem. No one is immune to addiction. And we all have a role to play in the solution. Whether we're in Burlington, Brattleboro or Barton, there are no easy answers. We must work together to continue to make progress. The truth is, sometimes this progress feels too slow. The gain is too small, especially when we read another obituary or hear of another family member impacted. Jolinda LeClaire, who's here, my director of drug prevention, often reminds us we must remain optimistic. Because if there's an opportunity for someone to access treatment, then there's hope. Our success can be counted, or it can be counted, one step, one person and one day at a time. And the truth is, many small states' steps often end up being the most meaningful. For example, think about the many Vermonters who participated in drug take-back days and safely dispose of about 20,000 pounds of unused prescriptions. And that's just over the last 18 months. And this positive step-by-step attitude is how we have to approach this crisis. Because we know that nothing we will ever truly feel to be successful is something of this nature. While we still have so much more work to do. The progress Vermonters seen is a result of hard work by many, over many years across administrations, doesn't matter who the governor is, state and local governments and private partnerships, some of whom are here today with us. Beth Crane, who we're here to recognize is a great example, and one for us to follow. She spent 20 years building prevention programs in Franklin County, implementing policies to support healthy kids, particularly through mentoring. Healthy LaMoyle Valley, whose work is also being recognized today, has built robust partnerships with law enforcement, employers and higher education using these relationships to strengthen prevention. And regional approaches like the Newport and St. John'sbury Regional Prevention Partnerships are doing great work in seeing real results. While our work is far from over, Vermont has been a leader in addressing the crisis like the public health crisis it is, and that's thanks to the efforts of so many Vermonters who truly can't be thanked enough. As Dr. Levine just mentioned, we need to tackle threats as soon as we see them, which is why prevention is at the core of my administration's public health plan. Between 2017 and 2018, 1.5 million more kids began using e-cigarettes and baked products across the nation. Right here in Vermont, use among young people doubled. After all the progress made tackling nicotine addiction, this is not only concerning, it's frustrating. And I think many of us and many of you know it's not my first instinct to add a tax, but given the health risks for our kids. This year I proposed to Levine the same tax on cigarettes or e-cigarettes as we do on tobacco products. On a related issue, this is why I'm also advocating that if the legislature passes a retail marijuana market, it must include an effective public education effort aimed at young Vermonters. We need to learn the lessons of tobacco and have a strong prevention framework in place before we do this. The health and well-being of our kids is far too important. Ultimately, working to prevent substance abuse is an investment in our future. Your work not only helps those most at risk, but also strengthens the quality of life of all Vermonters in every community across our state. So thank you again for all you do and thank you for having me here today. Thank you Governor Scott. Research has proven that drug and alcohol addiction is preventable. And today we celebrate those who put that research into action through their work to decrease the misuse of alcohol, nicotine, marijuana, and other drugs. Our 2019 prevention champions. Would all four representatives send one representative up to the podium right now? Remarkably, all four of our recipients work and live in northern Vermont and have met bimonthly since early 2018 to coordinate prevention efforts across all of northern Vermont. This is truly an innovative collaboration for the region and the work they have done together is just one more reason why they're being honored today. And right now we're just going to present the awards to them and then they will all have an opportunity to say a few words to you but in the interest of the Governor's time we're going to do that part first. And when you hear them speak you will see that the old adage is very true which is that an ounce of prevention is a lot of work. Healthy LaMoyle Valley and because they're representing an entire coalition you have some Star Awards for your whole coalition. Go LaMoyle. Regional Prevention Partnerships. And the St. John's for your Regional Prevention Partnerships. Get to all the good stories. Thank you very much by the way. Thank you very much for being here and for presenting the awards. I would like to invite Catherine Becker VanHase to the podium to share a few comments from Senator Sanders. Thank you very much. It's great to be here today on behalf of Senator Sanders to recognize the great work of these folks and these organizations that they represent. A lot has been said already about the importance of prevention efforts. I think that the state and frankly our country again sort of to echo what the Governor said this is also an area where Democrats and Republicans and independents in Washington have come to some agreement which is maybe even harder than that happening in this building. So I think it's a real testament to the hard work that has happened in communities at the grassroots to raise the importance of this issue because without you your representatives here in Montpelier and in Washington we need you to understand the importance of addressing this issue. So thank you for all of your great work in making your stories understandable, compassionate. I think that having empathy, compassion for each other is critical to this work. And so I really appreciate and I know Bernie does all of the work that you do every day to make this issue personal and relatable and available for all of us to understand. I can say that from Bernie's perspective prevention is not a bright line from one end to the other. It's a big gray band and for prevention for one person is going to be totally different than prevention for another person. And I think we need to focus on our young people but we also need to focus on our aging population. When you look at seniors one of the biggest challenges is isolation in Vermont isolation is one of the leading causes of substance misuse. So that is why our organizations like our senior centers our community health centers all of the organizations are designated agencies all of the organizations in our communities particularly in our rural areas that serve our seniors are absolutely critical to this issue of prevention just the same as our schools play a central role for our young people. So on behalf of Senator Sanders I can tell you that he is fighting hard in Washington to start having a better conversation around prevention and funding prevention at the national level. We've done a great job on some funding for treatment and other resources recovery even is starting to have some conversation but prevention needs to be a better part of the conversation around funding in Washington. So I can tell you that that is something Bernie's working on on behalf of all of our monitors in DC and again thank you for making your voices heard and we're going to continue to rely on you so keep up the good work. Thank you. I would like to invite Diane Derby to the podium to share a few words from Senator Leahy. Good morning, thank you for having me. I just wanted to on behalf of Senator Leahy thank all of you for the great work you're doing in the prevention realm. It's really wonderful particularly to see the RPP partnerships up here a few years back we had a great event with the health department when they successfully pulled down the $12 million grant to support the RPPs and build that out statewide and it's just really heartwarming to see the results of that and it's been such a successful effort along with the coalitions, drug free communities. Senator Leahy supports and is behind you all the way on all of these programs. He's using his vice chairmanship with the appropriations committee to support everything you're doing to bring more money back to Vermont. We're now midway through a two-year $6 billion that's a B. $6 billion effort nationwide to support everything across the board you know treatment, prevention the whole spectrum and particularly prevention. I think we're really recognizing as Catherine said that prevention is such a critical play in many other ways. So you know we see through the state opioid response grants that are coming in through the health department supporting all the work you're doing and that's really critical and we'll keep on fighting. Senator Leahy will keep on fighting for you in DC. So thank you very much. Now the really good stuff. Today I want to spend more time letting you hear directly from our recipients so my introductions are very brief but that doesn't mean I don't love you all. So first I invite Beth Crain to the podium my old friend. Beth is being honored for the outstanding work she has done in Franklin County for more than 20 years with Franklin County caring communities. She's one of the original coalition leaders when coalitions first launched across the state in 1998. Congratulations Beth. I want to say thank you to the governor and to you Dr. Levine for your leadership and to you children to be here a minute ago for caring the torch and I also want to give a shout out to Crystal Land who is replacing me as director and has replaced me as director. I'm now emeritus I guess. And I know there are a few other people in the room I do want to say thank you to I believe Jeff Moreau is here and we've worked together for years in different capacities as is Jonathan Billings from Northwestern Medical Center one of our great partners in prevention and back in the room somewhere I believe Tegan do so from Inesburg Falls High School Middle High School is here maybe with some of her students and I'll mention them in a minute too. And so thank you to all of you. I did start in this field number 98 making with Franklin County caring communities and at the time we were funded by Brookford communities schools and communities grant actually safe and darkly schools grant before that and have seen how prevention goes over 20 years and it's interesting to see how policies rise and fall and rise again but the things that I want to talk about is that we've always viewed prevention as being both first of all wellness and youth development being key to prevention and then as others have described it you've got a spectrum where you are looking at the individual and their wellness and their resilience and on the other end of it how does the environment in which they live support healthy decisions and make it possible for people to make good choices and to live a healthy life and so that that kind of brings us here to the state as today over the years we have I can tell you that prevention works because I don't think he's in this room right now but Senator Cory Parent from St. Albans was one of our early recipients of one of our youth initiated grants in his early political days as a school council member at St. Albans City School and wrote for a grant and received it to make changes in his school so and now he's doing the same on a larger stage here and we know that prevention works because we did see use rates decline over a 20 year period from the high levels of use in the 90s they're still very high alcohol is still used by way too many young people and is used on a regular basis and that is an area it's a legal substance we all know that but it's very much celebrated in our communities in our society we have an economy a local economy based around alcohol which is wonderful many respects but poses a lot of risks and creates a norm that we in prevention are working to counteract so I feel as if the work is ongoing the culture changes the risks change, the threats change and the opportunities change I mentioned a moment ago that we had Tegan do so here from Innesburg and one of our initiatives right now in addition to something I'm going to plug one thing and then I'll get off the stage so others can talk I'm going to plug two things actually on different ends of the spectrum one is a collaboration with our regional planning council rather than commission and this we stole from La Voile County and then went with it and it's a how to planning for prevention guide for policy makers and I have a few copies so I'd be happy to share and what we did that was a little different was to incorporate working with NMC Northwestern Medical Center Northwestern Counseling and Support Services our RISE Vermont team and other partners looking at prevention from the holistic viewpoint of mental health, physical health opportunities for activity in the community and bringing communities together around common cause so that is one thing that is available it's available online we hope to keep it a working document we've rolled it out to our commissioners we're rolling it out to our TAMS and then on the other end of the spectrum the work that Tegan is doing in our high school and that thanks to the United Way and many other fabulous partners we've been able to bring dealers a teen institute a summer program for students at the high school level who come together with an advisor for a short week five days of intensive learning and working together and playing together and developing skills that they can take back to their schools and offer and promote change and promote support for their fellow students throughout the school year so we're going north this will be year three and we're very excited to be doing that program and Dr. Levine we are looking at the Iceland model we're very much enamored of it we recently had the presenters come and speak to us so we continue to look at new and old ways to keep young people moving on the path to a healthy adulthood prevention works best when at the state policy level we are supported our communities are supported in those endeavors and I echo what Laurie said about the need to really think about how legislation impacts people at the local level and what the long term outcomes might be of a short term so thank you thank you Beth and so the next recipients you guys represent groups so if there's anybody you want to invite up here for some photo opportunities I welcome that so our next recipient is the healthy Lamoille Valley this coalition is being recognized for their exemplary work in the Lamoille Valley region and the robust relationships they've fostered with law enforcement area employers and higher education they've developed diverse relationships tremendous capacity in the region they engage youth at five area high schools and produce numerous resources used by colleagues and others around the state like Beth just shared the primary on planning for prevention and also the new vapor alert and out that you created which was great on drooling and vaping so thank you and congratulations good morning thank you on behalf of healthy Lamoille Valley Coalition we're really excited and honored to be here today the Lamoille Valley is an exciting place to live and work and includes Lamoille County and the greater Hardwick area building a coalition to prevent substance misuse is a privilege and a joy each day is different and we're out in the community meeting people and problem solving prevention work is a little bit like putting together a big puzzle you know the work you work on things for days weeks and years and then the partnership clicks and it begins to make a difference and that's so exciting while our work is about 20 years in the making we've seen tremendous increase in partnership connections over the last five years I'd like to highlight a few of those and it just speaks to the importance of this work five years ago we started working with the Lamoille County Planning Commission on planning for prevention that Beth is sharing today another prototype of this tool was created to provide local leaders with the language and tools to support local policy level change we've recently seen and celebrated successes with the towns of Hyde Park Elmore and Morristown just in the last few months sometimes in some cases in the last week this document was the first of its kind and many communities around the state are making it their own which is really exciting four years ago five people came together to host our first opiate forum for our community we developed a pocket resource guide that has been shared widely around our region and continues to be shared it offers hope and for those struggling with substance use disorder and it helps them to know what the resources are where they can get help that group in partnership with Sheriff Mark who has become the upstream Lamoille group we come together about every other month and we have lots of key partners and stakeholders around the table and we're tackling issues related to opiate misuse and dependence we're currently working to plan our fourth families and this year we'll have a focus on our fourth forum and this year we're having a focus on families this involvement led Sheriff Mark who to see the need and become a key law enforcement partner in the statewide prescription drug collection program also in collaboration with the Lamoille County Sheriff's Department we've created the Lamoille Area Youth Council and this has been a really exciting endeavor three of our actual Lamoille County schools Stowe People's Academy and Lamoille we have representatives from each of those student representatives that come together every month and they share what they're seeing and then we take that information and then we are able to use that in our prevention work on top of that we're also supporting individual groups in all five of our local middle and high schools we have OVX groups VCAT GSA's and Getting to Y groups and each of them is doing meaningful and impactful work and this is probably our most rewarding part of our work as it connects directly with youth and their excitement and energy is infectious and unfortunately because of where we are they weren't able to join us today but I know they're here with us in spirit there's many other additional projects that staff and volunteers are undertaking Healthy Lamoille Valley is in the process of growing our steering team to include more work voices so we can have more impactful work we now have recovery education, parents and the family centers helping as well as the Department of Health with us helping to make decisions on a monthly basis coalition staff groundbreaking work with retailers around best practices and even product placement in their stores we have a pilot project with Northern Vermont University at Johnson to embed prevention practices within their policies and heard just this week that they'll be putting the prescription drug mail back envelopes in each of their residence halls for students we are about to go to print with a tool formed with community partners to address ACEs and building resilience and resilience is a skill that we know is needed to help avoid substance misuse there are so many projects that we're so excited about and hope to build on sometimes our days are not long enough we're most fortunate to have a strong staff team we have Alice and Link taking the lead on policy and community outreach and we have Emma Delaney over there who has upped our communications to a new level producing documents such as the vaping handout that Lori mentioned that's being used around the state we also like to recognize two special community partners who have been crucial to our work a big shout out to our office of local health in Morrisville we could not do our work without that support they're so crucial they're integral partners we attend meetings together, we brainstorm and that's really powerful and the other shout out is actually Floyd Nice and the Lamoille Family Center who has been our fiscal agent and partner and mentor in our work and we really appreciate them so today I can stand here before you and share that I know prevention works because I've seen it grow and not just grow but thrive to engage students, parents and diverse community partners our coalition is thriving because the community sees the needs to protect youth and to make substance prevention a priority thank you thank you healthy Lamoille Valley so our last award and as a resident of the Northeast Kingdom I'm very excited to recognize our regional prevention partnership representing the Northeast Kingdom the Newport Regional Prevention Partnership and the St. Johnsbury Regional Prevention Partnerships they have brought long overdue attention to prevention in the Northeast Kingdom which is a consistently underserved region the Newport and St. Johnsbury RPPs have built incredible capacity in a short amount of time prior to the RPPs there was no established coalition in the region today there are three which are doing lots of policy work and building strong partnerships with key community stakeholders I invite Sunny and Cheryl and invite your gang and thank you we would like to call our community partners up from 302 Cares and Peter if you would stand with us please and also our staff my name is Cheryl Chandler I'm the regional prevention partnerships coordinator for Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital we want to thank Prevention Works Vermont for this award and congratulations to our colleagues who have also received awards we are accepting this award on behalf of all whom we collaborate with in the Northeast Kingdom and you can see a great representation here this morning we cover Orleans Essex and Caledonia Counties and the Newport and St. Johnsbury Health Department Districts which also includes Wells River and we have a number of people here from the Wells River Coalition we represent the regional prevention partnerships otherwise known as the RPP of Newport and St. Johnsbury in St. Johnsbury the RPP is held by Northeastern Vermont Regional Hospital and VRH a community not-for-profit acute care critical access hospital in Newport it is held by Northeast Kingdom Learning Services or otherwise known as Neckles and Neckles inspires and empowers learners from birth and beyond I would like to introduce some of the other members of our Northeast Kingdom RPP team so these are the staff members and we all work together that's why we're appearing here together even though we have two separate regional prevention partnerships grant we work together because we're served by many of the same services Sonny Norton who is the regional prevention partnerships coordinator in Newport and works for Neckles Tennyson Marceau prevention specialist for Northeast and Vermont Regional Hospital and Allison Howell who is the prevention specialist for Northeast Kingdom Learning Services we want to offer a thank you to Governor Scott for all he does for Romanters and he would be happy to hear that not only are we here today to represent prevention but we represent our staff for Vermonters who actually either move back to Vermont or relocated to Vermont and I know that's something that he is really trying to accomplish we are fortunate that we have been able to find work in human services in the Northeast Kingdom it's very rewarding and I want to say that prevention is alive and well in the New York Northeast Kingdom and you can see from the representation that we have here today that it's thriving and we know that prevention works also Sonny and I have been fortunate to be welcome to the Opioid Coordination Council Prevention Committee representing the Northeast Kingdom by Joe Linda LeClaire Rose Gaudi and Dr. Mark Levine thank you for including us in that we're so happy to be here with you all today and in addition we would like to acknowledge our legislators and the representatives from Senators Sanders Leahy and Welch's office that are here today we work with them as well we depend on their help to keep our youth safe and substance free we also work closely with our local offices of the Department of Health the RPP grant aims to reduce adolescent and young adult violence abuse while increasing the capacity of the state and local communities to provide prevention services so I'm sure as you can see here we've increased the capacity in our part of the state and having everyone travel down here with us today is a big tree this work is very close to our hearts as well as members of our team and our coalitions represent lived experiences in this arena both NVRH and NKLS hold tobacco prevention grant this grant aligns with the regional prevention partnerships grant and aims to educate all on the risks of tobacco, e-segure abuse and advocate for policies to decrease tobacco initiation secondhand smoke and tobacco marketing exposure Ali and Tennyson here with us today offer vaping and tobacco awareness presentations to our communities including area schools and they work tirelessly to affect policy change in our communities they have found certain communities to be especially ready for change including the village of North Troy Lindenville, St. Johnsbury and Danville in the northeast kingdom we share many of the same services as I mentioned earlier so it seemed natural that we should combine our efforts to ensure that there's no duplication of services and that we're covering our entire service area we would love to share some examples of our collaborations and recognize our community partners we have built strong community coalitions community coalitions are known to be effective in building a community's capacity to bring about population level change their success is dependent on all sectors of the community becoming involved sectors that include parents, students, schools civic and volunteer organizations youth serving organizations law enforcement, government business, faith organizations health organizations media and other organizations that address substance abuse and you can see that many are represented here today Newport district we've created the Peter collaborative which stands for prevention, intervention treatment and recovery this came together when members of the Newport city police department chief DeSantos who is the Peter chair met with Michelle and I at any KLS in addition to our designated mental health agency NKHS to discuss the fact that we needed a combined community response we looked to project visions map Proudie for guidance as well as Dart and Saint Jay and I absolutely want to recognize Joe Linda's always supporting us with Peter and always giving us shout outs and it's been a real encouragement to have your support in the work that we do Northeast prevention coalition is a subcommittee of Dart which is otherwise known as the drug abuse resistance team in St. Johnsbury it's been meeting since 2017 and represents northeast kingdom communities in support of healthy choices and using a variety of strategic interventions it's dedicated to preventing substance use misuse and abuse for all ages the coalition 302 cares is a group of individuals and organizations who agreed to work together for the common goal of reducing substance use misuse and abuse among youth and adults in November of 2016 a town meeting was held in Wells river and about a hundred community members turned out for that meeting they were concerned because there were many deaths within the past year due to opioid overdoses and it was a grassroots effort to form a coalition there and many of the people are here today you can raise your hand so people know who you are and this led to the formation of the coalition that still exists today which is a subcommittee of the Wells river action program and coalitions do not exist without people so we want to take a moment to highlight those from our communities that have joined us here today and please raise your hand or step forward so people can see you Kelsey Winchester who is a parent and a school board member from Wells river deputy Ken Schaefer from the Orange County Sheriff's Department and he is also a law enforcement against drugs instructor Michael Brandley a substance recovery and trauma coordinator from little rivers health care these are all members of 302 cares and then up in the Newport district which goes all the way from Glover up to Canaan and over to JP we have Michelle Terrick who is our Peter Treasurer and also our Northeast Kingdom Learning Services Executive Director and Michelle has gone to back so many times to get this programming in our community and to allow it to continue in our community thank you for all of you that you've done for us Lisa Dagle Farney she's the Northeast Kingdom Learning Services Director of Community Education and Outreach a Peter member and a strong leader for the prevention programming that we're building out at Northeast Kingdom Learning Services thank you we also have Suzanne LeGarry Belcher our Northeast Kingdom Field Director we're so happy to have her here she represents Newport and St.J she's one of the two things that have been able to take place because of her investment in our community we also have Sierra Ruth our youth empowerment specialist and also the coordinator of the new Big Brothers Big Sisters of Vermont that we have a chapter of in Orleans and Northern Essex County so Kimberly Diamond who is the Executive Director of the state program is here along with her other team members and I just want to say I'm so happy to have Tom Howell our Peter Steering Committee member from the business community who serves as the Director of Safety and Risk Management at JP thank you Tom I don't think there's too much snow up there today so we're appreciative that you can come down and be with us an example of a really important collaboration is the fact that the RPP was able to bring together Big Brothers Big Sisters of Vermont and JP JP has come on board as a founding partner for our local chapter and we want to extend a thank you not only to providing opportunities to the youth in our community but JP has made a vested effort to recognize how mentorship can be fulfilling for their employees to participate in so we really want to thank Tom and Steve Wright who can't be with us here today he said he's on the wrong coast and I said just not the right coast so he's on a trip but we really appreciate it to them and also I wanted to mention we do a lot of work with Canaan which is sort of an outline community and they just took the simple effort to put Big Brothers Big Sisters information in every single one of their report cards that went out in January so something that simple can get the word out there and really help the work that we do so thank you so much one more person I forgot to mention Sheriff Bill Von Yuck he has offered his staff to our coalition here in Wells River which has been really helpful we appreciate all of your support thank you another example of our collaborations is mental health first aid and both Sunny and I are trained to deliver mental health first aid trainings and we feel that it's really important because it's so closely related to substance use and misuse and it's an awareness based in person training program with proven ability to teach individuals how to recognize and respond to the warning signs of mental illness and substance use disorders and link people with appropriate treatment and support we have partnered with Northeast Kingdom Human Services and Vermont Care partners to train teachers youth service workers, camp counselors law enforcement and 4-H leaders just to name a few during prevention week last week last year we delivered the same prevention message throughout the Northeast Kingdom so we partnered and made sure that everyone was hearing the same message from both of the regional prevention partnerships we've only touched on a few of our prevention initiatives and we plan to be here for the entire day so please stop any one of us Tennyson, Allie, Sunny or myself and ask us about some of our initiatives or some of the things that we have discussed that you have more questions about lastly, thank you to the Vermont Department of Health division of alcohol and drug abuse programs and the division of health promotion and disease prevention for providing the funding that allows us to do our work it's incredible to look around the room and see all of our colleagues and friends and to think about the amazing amount of collaboration that has taken place in less than three years we have a strong foundation in the kingdom and if you have not already done so we invite others to take part in our efforts thank you again for standing with us for so long I have one more fabulous thing to do which is to introduce Jolinda LeClaire who's Governor Scott's director of prevention policy and provides oversight and management of Vermont's opioid coordination council and she would like to share a few remarks with us thank you, Lori last speaker and when we are already over time and I knew this at 11 o'clock last night when I was finishing writing my remarks you know that you must truncate what I also know is that many of the people in this room and people who are not here have sat at tables with the opioid coordination council and one of the things that we learned really early on is that prevention had to rise as a primary focus of all of the work that we do when it comes to substance use disorder and mental health issues we cannot silo substances you all know that and upstairs right now in house human services or in a little bit they will be talking once again about a bill S146 which will take the opioid coordination council the Vermont alcohol and drug abuse council and a few others and consolidate into one mega statewide prevention council this is something that our governor and I just want to say our governor and Commissioner Levine they are walking the talk they understand what prevention means and part of it is going community to community and understanding what the northeast kingdom is doing what Franklin County is doing what healthy Lamoille Valley is doing Orange County I don't know how many other counties are represented here we need to celebrate the work that's happening on the ground and we need to understand that critical to look at pathways for change policy program infrastructure and investment and the opioid coordination council had five drivers looking at those pathways to effect change prevention, intervention, treatment recovery and enforcement I just want to say law enforcement is critical at the community, regional and statewide door to impact the change and we all talk about collective impact we also talk about collective action and that is what you are all doing I pretty much now scrap my remarks but I want to say that it is the collective effort in this room that has made the difference you have built those big tables the 100 person meeting in Welles River I know Welles River very well the 100 person meeting that happened in Newport and the list goes on and on one of the sad things is that it often times takes crisis for us to convene and however when the crisis happens we have to hold hands we have to invest the myriad of resources that are often times really challenging to find from all different sectors and we need to put them together in one package I truly believe that 2019 and beyond is our time for prevention I think the governor has made that commitment the commissioner the alcohol and drug abuse program's director and the new deputy commissioner it is an all in approach last group mentioned business J. Peek is here today and I know there is a business person from Welles River again at the community door it has to be all hands this new council includes youth it includes elders it includes people in recovery family members in recovery it includes treatment providers recovery providers somebody from the academic community because data isn't important one of the things we often times struggle with is getting enough data in order to inform our best practices so I'm going to close by saying I'm optimistic I think we have done much at least in the last two and a half years since I have done a deep dive on the topics of substance use disorder and the intersect of all of these drivers to effect change the partnerships in the room and the people in the room are how we move forward we are paving the way to create a statewide system of comprehensive prevention programs school based and community based we are creating a statewide prevention committee we are creating the pathway to an investment model and the commissioner and the governor and I and many of you understand we have to have a sustainable investment model and lastly having a statewide prevention leader who is a cheerleader of the work that you're doing and amplifies the message time and time again you need to make sure everybody in the state has one of these stickers it takes 20 times to penetrate a message today so keep talking keep doing the good work you're doing and let's celebrate years of prevention as our priority thank you thank you Jolinda so just a couple of quick housekeeping we have the prevention champions in the cafeteria with cupcakes so please join us then at one o'clock we will be recognized on the house floor so if you're still in the building please go to the house chambers when they convene at one o'clock and you'll be represented and if you reach out to your legislators they can also represent you individually as a group individually as a group individually as a group Andrea Vellante is doing a presentation on Jooling and vaping and we welcome you to join us there and there will be some more refreshments in case that's going to entice me so thank you to all of you for joining us this morning I'd like to extend a special thank you to all of my colleagues and the thousands of volunteers you all work with across Vermont who provide information enhance skills improve neighborhoods and provide support in your community with you, prevention does work thank you