This July, I had the incredible opportunity to travel to Nashville, Tennessee as a member of the STARS (Students Thriving and Resisting Substances) team for the CADCA (Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America) Youth Mid-Year Training Conference. Representing Medway alongside fellow students, prevention leaders, and advocates from across the country was an eye opening experience that will help guide how our student group within the local drug prevention coalition, ‘SUP Medway, will approach substance use concerns in our community. By connecting with other youth leaders from across the country, I learned that substance misuse is far from limited to our community, as it stems from a national issue faced by peers from all different regions. 

Throughout the week, we participated in hands-on workshops that helped us closely analyze our town. Using the Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF), we created a map of Medway High School and its surrounding areas, identified local challenges, and highlighted the resources that make our community stronger. As a team, we identified problems in the Medway Community and their “hotspots” such as rejecting differences amongst students, vaping in schools, and most prominently, youth drinking at house parties. By organizing our ideas into a logic model, we could see how different factors like peer pressure, community norms, and youth access to substances interact and contribute to the issue. From there, we brainstormed intervention plans that targeted the root causes of underage substance use on a larger scale. Ideas include implementing a requirement for larger consequences and rehabilitation if minors are caught abusing substances,  advocating against packaging that appeals to youth, higher prices and taxes for substances aiming to create a higher barrier for youth access, etc. 

One of the most valuable aspects of the conference was networking. I was able to connect with students from various states such as California, Oklahoma, and Kansas, each facing unique challenges from their own communities but uniting under the common cause of youth substance misuse. Hearing ideas and strategies from these peers reminded me that while the specifics of substance use issues may differ by region, the need for strong prevention work is ubiquitous. Through the conference, our team gained valuable resources, including connections with youth coalitions across the country and training materials on the Strategic Prevention Framework and 7 Strategies for Community Change. We also were given many opportunities to practice our leadership and public speaking skills by presenting to other teams and also hearing other perspectives and feedback. These tools and relationships will help us design and implement effective prevention efforts in Medway.

In the past, I’ve helped chaperone “Friday Night Done Right”, a program that helps to create a safe, substance free space where middle schoolers could spend their Friday nights socializing without feeling the need to use substances. Additionally, for the last two years, I helped initiate the Sticker Shock campaign along with other students to partner with local liquor stores and warn adults about the dangers of supplying alcohol to minors. We also advocated at the Massachusetts State House during Kick Butts Day (2024) and ENUFF Day (2025), speaking with Representative Jeffrey Roy about substance prevention and the problems we saw with substance abuse in our youth community. Through the Norfolk District Attorney’s Peer Leadership Program and the Massachusetts Alcohol Policy Coalition’s youth training, I deepened my knowledge about policy making and the marketing strategies used by alcohol and tobacco industries. I presented these prevention efforts to the Medway School Committee in October 2024, where our work was recognized and commended by the members and the Superintendent.

After learning the Strategic Prevention Framework and expanding my networking and leadership skills in Nashville, I am eager to apply those lessons in Medway. Moving forward, STARS could explore ways to strengthen local policies around underage drinking, such as encouraging stronger consequences for underage substance misuse and working with businesses to limit youth access. We could also develop counter-marketing social media campaigns to raise awareness about how alcohol and vaping industries target the youth, and continue creating more substance free events to offer healthy socializing alternatives without substances. Engaging parents with programs like Sticker Shock could further support prevention efforts by increasing community awareness about the risks of underage drinking. Using data, community input, and targeted strategies to address youth drinking and substance abuse, I am confident that the STARS team and ‘SUP Medway can strengthen our prevention efforts for a healthier youth community.