The Peer Assisted School Transition Project (PAST) curriculum was developed by Council staff in collaboration with the Office of Behavioral Health Prevention and Federal Grants (OBHPFG). The PAST Project is an age and stage appropriate peer helping program that seeks to build resiliency in youth. PAST works by using trained peer leaders to assist younger students across two transitional phases in school, 5th grade to 6th grade (middle school transition) and 8th grade to 9th-grade transition (high school transition). The peer leaders (6th and 9th-grade students) are placed in helping roles with younger students (5th and 8th-grade students) from feeder campuses. The student participants are referred to the program by an adult leader at the host school. Students may be linked to specific peer leaders based on the needs of the student and the skills of the rising. Peer leaders offer individual peer support to the younger students (rising peers) through a series of 14 lessons that take place at the end of one school year (pre-transition phase) and at the start of the following school year (post-transition phase). The PAST curriculum is based on evidence-based strategies and practices and guides school personnel, peer leaders, and rising peers in building Substance Abuse Prevention (SAP) skills and knowledge via increasing the strength of multiple protective factors and reducing the strength of and exposure to multiple risk factors. Topics discussed include risk and protective factors, normative beliefs related to drug use, discovering the consequences of drug use, resisting peer pressure, Georgia’s Good Samaritan Law, transitions from school to school.

The PAST Project is currently being implemented within Atlanta Public Schools and Pike County Schools. For more information on the PAST Project, please contact Afiya King at aking@livedrugfree.org or (404) 223-2487.

The Partners In Prevention Project (PIPP) is funded by the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD) to prevent underage drinking by working in collaboration with local, regional, and statewide partners in 5 of DBHDD’s 6 regions across the state to serve selected target communities. Each community served will be focusing on one of the two goals below:

• Reduce the early onset of alcohol use among 9 to 20 year olds (underage youth)
• Reduce access to alcohol among 9 to 20 year olds (underage youth)
• Reduce binge drinking and heavy drinking among 18 to 25 year olds

PIPP will use the following 5 Steps of the Strategic Prevention Framework in order to achieve the above goals via interventions using the environmental strategy.

These 5 steps, guided by cultural competence and sustainability throughout, are:

• Needs Assessment
• Capacity Building (Training and Technical Assistance)
• Strategic Planning
• Implementation
• Evaluation

The Council is working in collaboration with local, regional, and statewide partners to serve selected target communities in the following counties:

• Region 1: Franklin, Banks, Habersham, and Stephens
• Region 2: Madison
• Region 3: Newton
• Region 5: Candler, Telfair, and Wheeler
• Region 6: Butts

Another part of this current effort involves a Regional Project Director from The Council on Alcohol and Drugs convening a Community Prevention Alliance Workgroup (CPAW). The members of this Workgroup, assess local needs via a primary survey and secondary data, build local prevention capacity via training and technical assistance, and develop an action plan. The CPAW consists of the following three sub-groups: Epidemiological (Epi) Workgroup, Planning and Operations Workgroup, and an Evaluation and Sustainability Workgroup.

The Georgia Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention Initiative (GPDAPI) of The Council on Alcohol and Drugs (The Council) focuses on four priority areas (Prevention Education, Safe Storage, Secure Disposal, and Advocacy) and thirteen deliverables.

The GPDAPI’s overall goal is to prevent and reduce prescription drug abuse in Georgia by providing prevention education to all demographics across the state, promoting in-home lockable storage of all medicines, promoting disposal of all medicines in either a drug drop box or some form of an environmentally friendly disposal pouch, and providing advocacy opportunities for everyone. The four priority areas listed above were identified in the Office of National Drug Control Policy’s (ONDCP’s) Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention Plan in 2011 and remain relevant and affective today. Significant components of this year’s activities include the further development, promotion and implementation of prevention education rooted in emotional intelligence and integrative medicine, a statewide safe storage and secure disposal program, the Georgia Rx Drug Abuse Prevention Collaborative, the Georgia Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention Awareness Campaign: “Prescription Drug Abuse – It’s Not what the Doctor Ordered” which are using social media channels such as Facebook and YouTube, and building collaboration in the overdose response space.

Additional major deliverables for FY2023 are:

• Dissemination of prescription drug abuse prevention training modules that focus on training the public, physicians, and pharmacists.
• Collaborate with Emory University’s Maternal Substance Abuse and Child Development (MSACD) Project to raise awareness and prevent the unborn, infants, and their mothers from being negatively affected by prescription and other drugs.   
• Provide policy education (advocacy, not lobbying) to educate and inform stakeholders, policymakers, and the public regarding legislation that prevents and reduces prescription drug abuse in Georgia.
• Continue to build the presence and influence of the www.stoprxabuseinga.org and the https://prescriptiondrugdisposal.com/ websites.

TCAD is working in collaboration with many public and private stakeholders across the state to prevent prescription drug abuse in Georgia such as the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD), Georgia’s 28 Drug Free Community Coalitions (DFCCs), the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Attorney General’s Office, the medical, psychological and pharmaceutical communities; including the Georgia Society of Addiction Medicine (GSAM), the Medical Association of Georgia and Foundation (MAGF), the Georgia Pharmacy Association (GPhA), the Georgia Board of Pharmacy (GBPh), the Georgia Hospital Association (GHA), organizations and institutions that support veterans/active service members of the Armed Forces and Senior citizens, health care management organizations, as well as any other organization or entity that are willing to materially contribute to responding to the prescription drug abuse epidemic. Collaboration is contingent upon the cooperation of each organization, institution, or entity.

Funding for the GPDAPI is being provided by the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities/Division of Addictive Diseases/Office of Prevention Services and Programs (DBHDD/DAD/OPSP).

The “GEN Rx-Region 6” program is part of an expanded version of the original Georgia GEN Rx Initiative Partnership for Success program and funded through the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities. The primary goal of the GEN Rx-Region 6 program is to reduce prescription drug misuse and abuse among youth and adults ages 9–25. The initiative focuses on the following objectives:

• Decrease the availability and access of prescription drugs for 9- to 25-year-olds.
• Increase peer and family norms that discourage prescription misuse/abuse among 9- to 25-year-olds.
• Increase the perception of prescription drug risk/harm for 9- to 25-year-olds, families, community members, and providers.
• Develop collaboration with provider agencies, school systems, local, state, and federal entities, and key stakeholders to carry out the scope of work to facilitate the goals and objectives of this GEN Rx Initiative.

These objectives are accomplished using a multi-faceted approach that includes providing awareness education, prevention outreach programming services, and collaboration.

The Council is working in collaboration with local, regional, and statewide partners to serve the selected community of Upson County.

The Statewide Opioid Response Community Showcase Events Project (SOR CSE) is funded by the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD) to prevent opioid misuse and abuse by working in collaboration with local, regional, and statewide partners in 5 of DBHDD’s 6 regions across the state to serve selected target communities.  Each community served will be focusing on the following goal:

• To increase community awareness of opioid use, misuse and abuse and build support for reducing opioid abuse and misuse.

The Council is working in collaboration with local, regional, and statewide partners to serve selected target communities in the following counties:

• Region 1: Polk
• Region 2: Elbert
• Region 4: Lowndes
• Region 5: Toombs, Johnson
• Region 6: Carroll

SOR CSE will work with selected communities to help plan and implement a community showcase event that provides information to include the following:

• Provide education to Georgians about the importance of safely securing all medication by locking it away or disposing of medications at drop box’s locations to prevent accident, theft, or misuse.
• Inform and educate Georgians about how the Good Samaritan Law (Medical Amnesty) protects individuals when calling 911 in the cases of opioid, alcohol, and other drug overdoses. Also, to encourage individuals to call 911 and stay until help arrives.
• Encourage Georgians to speak with their doctors about alternatives to opioid pain medication to prevent potential misuse.
• Provide information to Georgians about the Georgia Crisis and Access Line (GCAL) to aid those in crisis and linkage to resources.
• Provide information on Naloxone, a medication used to reverse opioid overdoses, and to encourage those at risk of overdose or family/friends of someone at risk of overdose to obtain Naloxone to prevent death due to an opioid overdose.

The SUPER Stop! program is a family based program that reduces alcohol and other drug use via empowering youth and providing the skills, attitudes and behaviors necessary to live a drug-free lifestyle. SUPER Stop! is a 5 session program for 11 to 18 year olds who are exposed to risk factors for having problems related to conflict violence, alcohol or drugs, and their parents or guardians.  Populations to be served may come from the courts, middle and high schools, youth serving agencies, and other entities. Parents in the program learn about skills, attitudes and behaviors that help manage and support their children's drug-free lifestyle. Family-based programs (as compared to youth-only programs) have been shown by various Federal agencies (e.g. DHHS/DOE/OJJDP) to be more effective than youth-only programming. SUPER Stop! has eight hours of programing that focuses on conflict resolution, violence prevention, and the strong connection between alcohol, other drugs and violence. SUPER Stop! also provides alcohol and other drug prevention per se by addressing the risk and protective factors associated with substance use. The SUPER Stop! program mainly consists of interactive exercises which fully engage both parents and youth, often asking them to participate together as a team. Many times the eight hours spent in SUPER Stop! is the most time parents have spent with their children in many months. Interactive programming has been shown time and again to be more effective than didactic programming.

SUPER Stop! has been implemented within Atlanta Public Schools, DeKalb County Juvenile Court, Richmond County School System, Fayette County Public Schools, Columbia County School District, Henry County Schools, Gordon County Juvenile Court, Cobb County Juvenile Court, Fulton County Juvenile Court, Peachtree Charter Middle School, and Dunwoody High School.

For more information on the SUPER Stop! program, please contact Afiya King at aking@remove-thislivedrugfree.org or (404) 223-2487.

Created through the Drug-Free Communities Act of 1997, the Drug-Free Communities (DFC) Support Program funds community coalitions working to reduce substance use among youth and to create safer and healthier communities.  The ultimate goals for DFC community coalitions are to (1) reduce substance use among youth and (2) increase collaboration in the community to address substance use and associated problems. The DFC Support Program is funded and directed by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), with support from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

The DFC Support Program funds are granted for 5 years in the amount of $125, 000 a year with the potential of an additional 5 years.  The Council has partnered with several local community organizations to bring the DFC grant to sustain and expand substance abuse prevention efforts of the local drug-free coalition.

The Council partnered with Communities in Schools of Athens, Inc., part of the Family Collaborative of Clark County, and was a recipient of a DFC grant in September of 2018.  In December of 2020, two additional DFC grants were awarded in partnership with Atlanta Public School and the Voluntary Action Center in Gordon County.  The Council also oversees the DFC in Barrow County through the Auburn Prevention Project since December 2019.

The two main issues being addressed through the DFC grant are underage use of alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana. The Council and its partners will implement environmental strategies that will:

• Help change community norms /perceptions on underage drinking and youth marijuana and tobacco use
• Look at local policies and practices that affect these issues in each community
• Change youth perceptions on these issues by affecting their environment including ease of access to the substances and the social and/or legal consequences

Voices for Prevention (V4P) is a state-wide project that provides substance abuse prevention and suicide prevention advocacy via policy education, legislative updates, webinars, and prevention-related activities.  These activities include annual advocacy focused events in the State Capitol such as, Substance Abuse Prevention Day and Suicide Prevention Day.

The mission is to build a unified statewide voice for substance abuse prevention and suicide prevention by collaborating with diverse groups of prevention specialists, coalitions, community members, youth action teams, and individuals with an interest in and a commitment to substance abuse prevention and suicide prevention.

V4P hosts a website with advocacy related resources and archives the quarterly newsletter, Voices in the Know.  (https://v4pga.org/)

The Youth Advocacy Project was developed to encourage youth engagement in advocacy. This will be accomplished via youth summits, virtual youth rallies, and the Advocacy Ambassador Certification which is intended for those interested in Substance Abuse Prevention, Suicide Prevention, and Mental Health Advocacy. This certification will prepare and empower youth to engage in advocacy at the local, state, and national levels.