Grants, Funding and Strategies
In 2008, the City of Brockton in partnership with High Point Treatment Center was awarded the MassCALL2 grant with the primary objective of saving the lives of those in the community of Brockton suffering from opiate addiction and to create awareness about opioid overdose prevention.
Today, the coalition has expanded to become the Brockton Area Prevention Collaborative, encompassing the towns of Bridgewater, Brockton, East Bridgewater, Hanson, Rockland, and Whitman as a regional approach. The BAPC was the first funded cluster on the south shore to address the issue of opioid abuse and overdose.
Strategies and interventions for our state grants must be consistent with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) model, consistent with any available evidence-based practices or local best practices.
The Collaborative focuses on education, trainings, and outreach for individuals in active use, bystanders, and the community at large.
Drug Free Communities (DFC)
HPTC Prevention Services was awarded the DFC grant in October 2019 which supports the Collaborative and its prevention work not only in East Bridgewater, Rockland and Whitman, but also the two local regional vocational technical high schools: Southeastern and South Shore. This grant focuses its efforts on the prevention of prescription drug misuse and underage marijuana use. The DFC Support Program is the nation’s leading effort to mobilize communities to prevent and reduce substance misuse among youth. Created in 1997 by the Drug-Free Communities Act, directed by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), and now administered by CDC, the DFC Program provides grants to community coalitions to strengthen the infrastructure among local partners to create and sustain a reduction in local youth substance use.
Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA) Grant
HPTC Prevention Services was the only Massachusetts awardee of the CARA grant in June 2021, which is aimed at current or former DFC grant recipients to prevent and reduce the use of opioids or methamphetamines and the misuse of prescription medications among youth ages 12-18 in communities throughout the United States. This funding will enhance our current DFC grant and use evidence-based prevention strategies that will result in healthier outcomes for our youth population. This initiative supports the communities of Whitman, Rockland, and East Bridgewater.
CDC – Overdose to Action Initiative (OD2A)
The City of Brockton was awarded the Center for Disease Control and Prevention – Overdose to Action Initiative. The city will work with the Brockton Area Prevention Collaborative to build upon the MOAPC grant program in order to prevent the consequences related to opioid misuse and addiction that serve to enhance and support the community’s understanding, connection, and utilization of intervention, treatment and recovery services. The Coalition is training businesses in the Brockton area on overdose prevention and Naloxone (Narcan) administration.
State Opioid Response – Prevention in Early Childhood (SOR-PEC)
The City of Brockton was awarded the SOR-PEC grant in May 2021. The City will work with HPTC Prevention Services to provide Brockton with the infrastructure, systems, and partnerships to support implementation of a comprehensive, multi-domain set of services to address the impact of substance misuse on children living with a parent or caregiver with a history of substance misuse and addiction. The goal is to mitigate the elevated risk these children have for developing future substance use and related health and behavioral health issues.
Sober Truth on Preventing Underage Drinking Act (STOP)
The Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office was awarded the Sober Truth on Preventing Underage Drinking Act (STOP) Grant in partnership with the Brockton Area Prevention Collaborative. The purpose of this grant program is to prevent and reduce alcohol use among youth and young adults ages 12-20. The Collaborative is specifically working with Southeastern Regional Vocational Technical High School and South Shore Vocational Technical High School to meet the goals and objectives of this grant program.
Massachusetts Collaborative for Action Leadership, and Learning 3 (MassCALL3 Part B)
The purpose of this grant is to support the City of Brockton, and the towns of Bridgewater, East Bridgewater, Hanson, Raynham, Rockland, and Whitman with existing capacity, infrastructure, and experience implementing a systematic public health planning process and/or implementing a comprehensive set of evidence-based prevention programs, policies, and practices to prevent the misuse of substances of first use (e.g., alcohol, nicotine, cannabis) among youth.
Strategic Prevention Framework – Partnerships for Success (SPF-PFS) Grant
HPTC Prevention Services was awarded the SPF-PFS grant in September 2019 which is a federal grant sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The purpose of this grant program is to address one of the nation’s top substance misuse prevention priorities; underage drinking among persons aged 9 to 20. The SPF-PFS grant program is intended to prevent the onset and reduce the progression of substance misuse and its related problems while strengthening prevention capacity and infrastructure at the state, tribal, and community levels. Through this grant, HPTC Prevention Services aims to address alcohol and marijuana use among middle school aged students in southeastern, MA with a specific focus on students impacted with adverse childhood experiences (ACEs).
Problem Gambling Prevention: Youth and Parents
The Department of Public Health’s Office of Problem Gambling Services launched a prevention initiative utilizing Photovoice as a mechanism to raise awareness about underage gambling in Southeastern, MA. The Photovoice project uses a youth-centered, participatory approach to engage local youth in using Photovoice to help prevent problem gambling. The goals of the project are to prevent or reduce underage gambling and problem gambling among youth, as well as help youth develop and maintain the healthy lifestyle needed to ensure that they won’t develop problems with gambling. Prevention Services has conducted over twenty other Photovoice projects on substance use prevention, but this has been the first of many projects where the focus is on underage gambling.
Gambling Photovoice Project 1- Bridgewater Raynham 2018
Gambling Photovoice Project 2- Southeastern Regional Tech. HS 2019
Gambling Photovoice Project 3- Brockton High School 2019
Gambling Photovoice Project 4- Bristol Plymouth, Brockton High & Southeastern Winter 2021
Gambling Photovoice Project 5- Boys & Girls Club Brockton Fall 2021
United Way of Greater Plymouth County
The United Way of Greater Plymouth County provides funding to HPTC’s Prevention Services’ community coalitions to address youth substance use prevention through an annual youth conference.
Health Literacy Substance Use Prevention Education (2017-2018): Prevention Services worked to build capacity of healthcare providers to communicate effectively with patients and families around the use of opioids and other prescription drugs. Prevention Services conducted focus groups with health care providers to gain a baseline understanding of their level of health literacy. After these focus groups were conducted, trainings were conducted by Prevention Services to provide education and improve communication with patients are the scope of the problem and the risks associated with substance use. Prevention Services then developed health education materials targeting youth and families that utilize services at the healthcare offices as a means to increase patients understanding. In addition, informational resources are distributed to patients and caregivers to provide educational material to take home following each appointment.
Youth Substance Use Prevention Conference (2017-present): Prevention Services implemented a youth-led substance use prevention conference for the towns it serves. This strategy aims to provide peer-led education to youth while informing schools and youth-serving organizations around the risks associated with substance use. Topics include substance use 101 including the effects on the teenage brain, addiction through a youth’s perspective, and community based prevention initiatives organized for youth by youth.
View the highlights from the 1st Annual Youth Conference
View the highlights from the 2nd Annual Youth Conference
View the highlights from the 3rd Annual Youth Conference
Photovoice (2017-2018): Prevention Services facilitated two additional Photovoice projects throughout the region. Photovoice is an innovative qualitative research method that puts cameras in the hands of its participants. Photovoice gives participants an opportunity to utilize their voice through a creative lens by capturing photographs and sharing stories through group facilitation. Participants deeply reflect on problems that are affecting their community and discuss possible solutions. The end product is a display of unique photography coupled with quoted stories to raise awareness to the community at large with the ultimate goal of creating effective change.
Handbook on Vaping Resources (2018-2019): This guide, developed in 2019, is in response to these questions and was created through interviews, focus groups, and surveys of adults and local youth, as well as an extensive literature review. This guide is for schools to be better resourced in how to address vaping through providing information to school staff, parents and students.
Previous Grants Held
Drug Free Communities (DFC)
The Collaborative was awarded the Drug Free Communities Grant in 2019. “A Three Community Region Working to Prevent Youth Use of Marijuana and Prescription Drugs” seeks to establish and strengthen community collaboration in support of local prevention efforts in East Bridgewater, Rockland and Whitman, Massachusetts. The Collaborative will institute targeted prevention efforts of youth impacted by adverse childhood experiences who are enrolled in mainstream and vocational technical schools.
To increase community collaboration, the Collaborative plans to (1) increase cultural competency by increasing coalition members of under-represented community populations and (2) increase sustainability by enhancing the coalitions’ and communities’ capacity. Strategies to accomplish these objectives include: engaging and recruiting diverse community stakeholders, enhancing the skills of Collaborative members, collecting and assessing youth substance use data, as well as providing information to the Collaborative communities and overall region on current youth substance use trends and best-practices.
To reduce youth substance abuse, the Collaborative seeks to (1) increase youth and parental perception of harm towards marijuana by 3% amongst Collaborative youth and parents of grades 8, 9, 11 & 12, (2) reduce past-30-day prescription drug misuse by 0.5 percentage points amongst Collaborative youth grades 8, 9, 11 & 12 and (3) create a formal prevention policy between the two local vocational schools, recovery high school, youth serving organizations, and Collaborative police departments on identifying and intervening with students K-12 most at-risk for prescription drug use. Strategies to accomplish these objectives include: assessing community belief towards marijuana, providing information, enhancing skills, reducing access, modifying policies, and providing support.
Strategic Prevention Framework – Partnerships for Success (SPF-PFS)
Prevention Services of High Point Treatment Center was awarded the Strategic Prevention Framework – Partnerships for Success grant in 2019 to address alcohol and marijuana use among middle school aged students in southeastern, MA with a specific focus on students impacted with adverse childhood experiences.
Goal 1: Increase access to Prevention Services by creating a contiguous regional infrastructure between the Brockton Area Prevention Collaborative and the Plymouth Area Substance Abuse Prevention Collaborative.
-Objective 1: By the first three months, Prevention Services will expand its geographic region and capacity by adding Hanson and Raynham through formal agreements.
-Objective 2: By the first six months, Prevention Services will have increased collaboration among the eight community coalitions by developing an Executive Committee.
-Objective 3: By the end of the first year, Prevention Services will expand its education sector by adding (2) middle school-based steering committees in the Brockton and Plymouth region.
Goal 2: Reduce alcohol and marijuana use among persons aged 11-14 by implementing evidence-based policies, programs and strategies at the school and community level.
-Objective 1: By the end of the school year 2024, the number of middle school students reporting alcohol use within the past 30 days will decrease by 2%.
-Objective 2: By the end of the school year 2024, the number of middle school students reporting marijuana use within the past 30 days will decrease by 2%
Goal 3: Prevent or reduce negative consequences of alcohol and marijuana use among persons aged 11-14.
-Objective 1: By the end of the school year 2024, the number of middle school students who perceive both alcohol and marijuana as harmful will increase by 5%.
Massachusetts Opioid Abuse Prevention Collaborative (MOAPC)
The MOAPC Grant Program is funded by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MADPH) Bureau of Substance Addiction Services (BSAS) to address the issue of opioid use and abuse, and fatal and non-fatal opioid overdoses in Massachusetts. The purpose of the grant is to implement local policy, practice, systems and environmental change to prevent the use/abuse of opioids, prevent/reduce fatal and non-fatal opioid overdoses, and increase both the number and capacity of municipalities across the Commonwealth addressing these issues. Additionally, this Program seeks to provide financial support for groups of municipalities to enter into formal, long term agreements to share resources and coordinate activities in order to increase the scope of this work and capacity of municipalities to address these issues among their combined populations.
Please see the MassTAPP website for more information.
MOAPC Strategies
Improving the Response of First Responders
Recognizing that fatal and non-fatal overdoses from opioids play an increasing role in the mortality and morbidity of Massachusetts residents, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health launched the Overdose Education and Naloxone Distribution (OEND) prevention program using intra-nasal Naloxone (naloxone) in an attempt to reverse this trend. Naloxone is an opioid antagonist which means it displaces the opioid from receptors in the brain. An overdose occurs because the opioid is on the same receptor site in the brain that is responsible for breathing. Naloxone usually acts dramatically, allowing slowed or absent breathing to resume. It is both safe and effective and has no potential for abuse. Naloxone has been used by paramedics in ambulances and by emergency room clinicians for decades.Since December of 2007, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health has implemented overdose education and intra-nasal naloxone distribution (OEND) in eight community-based settings. These programs have trained potential bystanders to an overdose (drug users, friends, family members) on how to reduce overdose risk, recognize signs of an overdose, access emergency medical services, and administer intra-nasal naloxone. First responders such as police and fire departments; and staff of agencies that serve high-risk individuals can also play a key role in saving lives if they have been trained and have access to Naloxone.
Dissemination of Overdose Prevention Materials
Increase Awareness around the Good Samaritan LawIn Massachusetts the rate of fatal drug overdose has increased dramatically over the past decade. In 2007, an average of 12 Massachusetts residents died each week of an opioid-related overdose (e.g. from heroin, oxycodone, or fentanyl). An overdose is a life-threatening medical emergency. If 911 emergency responders are called quickly enough, in most cases, the person will survive. One of the major contributing factors to an overdose death is that many witnesses do not call 911 due to fear of police involvement. The 911 Good Samaritan law provides protection from drug possession charges when an overdose victim or an overdose witness seeks medical attention.This law helps reduce overdose deaths by removing barriers to calling 911 for medical assistance, a crucial step in saving the life of someone experiencing an overdose. The legislation does not protect individuals from being prosecuted for other offenses such as drug trafficking or weapons charges. This also does not protect individuals with outstanding warrants nor would it interfere with law enforcement protocols to secure the scene of an overdose.
View Massachusetts DPH’s Information Sheet on the legislation
Read the Network for Public Health Law’s overview of Overdose Good Samaritan Laws
Learn to Cope Support Groups
Joanne Peterson founded Learn to Cope in 2004, with a small group of parents, when her own son became addicted to opiates. Her son is in long-term recovery today. What started then, as a single peer-to-peer support group in Randolph, Massachusetts, has grown to include nearly 3,000 members registered nationally. Every chapter of Learn to Cope holds weekly meetings run by experienced facilitators who have been there. These meetings offer support, education, resources, and most importantly HOPE for recovery. We invite guest speakers from time who are either professionals in the field of addiction to educate us or people in long term recovery to offer us hope. We are parents, not professionals. Anything said in these meetings should stay in the meeting for the respect of our families’ privacy.
Naloxone Pilot Program
Since December of 2007, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health has implemented overdose education and intra-nasal naloxone distribution (OEND). These programs have trained potential bystanders to an overdose (drug users, friends, family members) on how to reduce overdose risk, recognize signs of an overdose, access emergency medical services, and administer intra-nasal naloxone. Potential bystanders are instructed to deliver naloxone when opioid overdose occurs in addition to taking other actions (e.g. rescue breathing and contacting the emergency medical system). The training for bystanders is approximately fifteen to thirty minutes in duration, after which each participant receives an overdose prevention kit. The kit includes instructions, two syringes prefilled with Naloxone Hydrochloride, and a nasal atomization delivery device. There are nineteen pilot sites throughout the state of Massachusetts.
Prescription Drug Take-Back Events
Because medicines are commonly found in family medicine cabinets, on top of dressers, in kitchen cabinets, and in other accessible locations, it is important to take stock of the drugs in your home. If you have unwanted or expired prescriptions, you must dispose of them in order to keep your child safe.You can host a prescription drug take back event in your community and find out more about The National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day which aims to provide a safe, convenient, and responsible means of disposing of prescription drugs, while also educating the general public about the potential for abuse of medications.Find out more about disposing of unused medicine from the Medicine Abuse Project and National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day from the DEA Web site.
Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP)
The Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) is a tool that supports safe prescribing and dispensing and assists in addressing prescription drug misuse and abuse. The PMP collects prescribing and dispensing information on Massachusetts Schedule II through V controlled substances dispensed pursuant to a prescription. Schedules II through V consist of those prescription pharmaceuticals with recognized potential for abuse or dependence (e.g., narcotics, stimulants, sedatives), and consequently, they are among those most sought for illicit and inappropriate (non-medical) use. The Drug Control Program (DCP) utilizes PMP data to determine prescribing and dispensing trends; provide patient prescription history information to prescribers and dispensers; provide educational information to health care providers and the public; and provide case information to regulatory and law enforcement agencies concerning drug distribution and diversion.Massachusetts’ PMP requires doctors to sign up for and use the state’s prescription monitoring program. Under the PMP, pharmacies and drug manufacturers have to alert local police when they report missing controlled substances to the Drug Enforcement Administration. When a minor is treated for a drug or alcohol overdose at a hospital, a legal guardian must be notified, and resources including a social worker must be provided.
For more information on Massachusetts PMP visit the BSAS Web site.
Guidance on MA Online PMP Automatic Enrollment and Requirements for Utilization.
Working with Pharmacists to Reduce Access
- Check prescriptions for signs of fraud
- Coordinate and communicate with doctors
- Monitor medication refills to prevent overuse
- Follow legal requirements designed to protect patients from overuse and abuse
- Provide patient education:
- How medications should be used
- How to store medications
- How to dispose of medications
Read the American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists position paper on pharmacist’s role in preventing abuse.
View the Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin’s Prescription Drug Abuse Prevention Education Toolkit for pharmacists.
Read strategies pharmacists and physicians can implement to help prevent abuse and misuse at the Preventing Prescription Drug Misuse Project.
Proper Storage and Disposal of Prescription Drugs
1 in 6 children have abused prescription medicines. Every day, 2,000 teenagers use a prescription drug to get high for the first time. They’re accessing these drugs in the comfort of home; it can be as easy as opening a cupboard, drawer, or medicine cabinet. The good news – there are steps caregivers can take to help protect youth from prescription drug abuse: monitor, secure and dispose.This web site from Massachusetts’ BSAS provides tips to monitor, secure, and dispose of medicine in the home.The Medicine Abuse Project created Not In My House which provides a checklist for caregivers to monitor, secure, and properly dispose of prescription drugs in their home.
Click here for an information sheet about the safe storage and disposal of prescription drugs.
Partnership for Success 2015
The purpose of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Partnerships for Success 2015 (PFS 2015) grant program is to prevent prescription drug misuse and abuse among high school aged youth across the Commonwealth.
This grant program will target prescription drug misuse and abuse among high school aged youth (14 to 18) in 16 Massachusetts communities of high need. Together, these communities are home to nearly two million residents, approximately 30% of the total Massachusetts population of 6.7 million. They also include the state’s ten largest cities. The City of Brockton has been funded through the PFS 2015 grant. We will use the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) to implement evidence-based prevention strategies.
Partnership for Success Strategies
- Individual or environmental strategies designed to increase the perceived risk/harm of the Non-Medical Use of Prescription Drugs, alter norms from belief that prescription drugs are a “safer” alternative to other illicit drugs.
- Prescription Drug Take Back Programs and the Expansion of the Mobile Drug Take Backs
- Social Media Campaigning.
Substance Abuse Prevention Collaborative (SAPC)
The BAPC was awarded the SAPC grant July 1 2015, funded by BSAS, as part of a comprehensive approach to reduce the use and misuse of substances throughout the state. The SAPC grant specifically addresses underage drinking and other drug use from a regional approach. The collaborative towns, with the addition of Bridgewater, home to Bridgewater State University, will work to implement strategies that will have a sustained effect on prevention and reducing underage drinking and other drug use and the devastating consequences that can ensue.
Please see the MassTAPP website for more information
SAPC Strategies
- Promotion and enforcement of the Social Host Liability Law
- School Alcohol and Substance Use Policy cohesion
- Social Marketing Campaigning
Drug Free Communities (DFC) Grant
The BAPC was awarded the DFC grant in October 2014 in partnership with the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office under a federal grant sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).
The primary goals of this grant are to: Establish and strengthen collaboration among communities, public and private non-profit agencies; as well as federal, state, local, and tribal governments to support the efforts of community coalitions working to prevent and reduce prescription opioid and heroin use among youth (18 years and younger). In addition, we aim to reduce prescription opioid and heroin use among youth and, over time, reduce prescription opioid and heroin use among adults by addressing the factors in a community that increase the risk of substance abuse and promoting the factors that minimize the risk of substance abuse.
Drug Free Communities Strategies
- Goal One: Increase Community collaboration
- Objective 1: Increase coalition membership from under represented sectors
- Strategy: Recruit new members
- Objective 2: Enhance capacity of coalition members
- Strategy: Increase cultural competence of coalition membership
- Strategy: Make training opportunities accessible for all coalition members.
- Strategy: Collect and analyze data
- Strategy: Inform coalition members of current youth substance trends/best practices
- Objective 1: Increase coalition membership from under represented sectors
- Goal Two: Reduce Youth Substance Abuse
- Objective 1: Reduce Past Day 30 day use of non-personal and abuse of personal prescription drugs by 10% in youth from all four communities (Grades 9, 10, 11, 12).
- Strategy: Increase perception of harm via public awareness campaign.
- Strategy: Enhance access to information about safe prescription drug storage for marginalized community members
- Strategy: Enhance skills of parents/professionals in recognizing prescription drug abuse.
- Strategy: Reduce access to prescription pills
- Strategy: Create partnership between hospitals to modify policy of prescription practices.
- Strategy: Increase perception of harm via peer messaging
- Strategy: Modify police patrol policies
- Objective 1: Reduce Past Day 30 day use of non-personal and abuse of personal prescription drugs by 10% in youth from all four communities (Grades 9, 10, 11, 12).