With communities throughout North Carolina facing high rates of underage drinking and tobacco use, coalition leaders in Clay County, N.C. felt that drug prevention efforts needed to reach a wider area of the state. Now, thanks to funding from Congress, six more counties in rural western North Carolina will be able to launch anti-drug coalitions in their communities.

The new coalitions will be modeled after the Coalition for a Safe and Drug-Free Clay County, which focuses on preventing middle and high school students from using alcohol, marijuana and tobacco. The coalition has been successful in its efforts, helping to cut tobacco use in half and to achieve a slight reduction in alcohol and marijuana use.

U.S. Congressman Charles Taylor, whose district representative is a member of the Clay County Coalition, noticed the impact the group’s efforts were having on the community so he helped provide the Clay County coalition with a $300,000 earmark from Congress. Each of the six counties will receive $35,000 to get their coalitions off the ground.

“Congressman Taylor was aware of how effective our efforts had been and he felt that rather than having communities start from scratch, it would be nice to provide them some help from a group that knows what they are doing,” explained Coalition Director Stephen Smith. “Every county in the country needs a coalition—whether they’re dealing with tobacco, alcohol or methamphetamine use.”

Clay County coalition leaders recently hosted a meeting to bring influential leaders from the six counties together to discuss a game plan for building the new coalitions. Participants ranged from North Carolina’s First Lady and U.S. Congressman Taylor to local school superintendents and county sherrifs. “We discussed each step that they needed to take to launch their coalition, including how to develop a strategic plan and build capacity,” Smith said.

In addition to guidance and tools from the Clay County Coalition, the new coalitions will receive training from CADCA’s National Coalition Academy and will become CADCA members. “We’ve given them all of the tools they need so that they don’t have to figure it out from scratch,” Smith said.

For more information on the Coalition for a Safe and Drug-Free Clay County, visit www.drugfreeclaycounty.com/.