WORLAND — More than 30 people form multiple organizations came together in a meeting Jan. 18 as part of a new coalition to join efforts to combat substance abuse in the Worland area.

The Washakie Prevention Coalition is seeking input and grant funding to address substance abuse with the youth, but also the entire community.

Lila Jolley of Washakie County Prevention Organization, said that there has always been a prevention coalition and that Washakie County Attorney’s Office Victims Witness Coordinator Bob Vines approached the coalition about the program Community That Cares. At the same time, Washakie County Youth Alternatives, with Sarah Garcia and Sheri Gunderson were getting ready to apply for the Drug Free Community program, something they have applied for, for the past several years.

Gunderson said the Drug Free Community program has similar goals with Community That Cares to bring community wide efforts to address substance abuse.

“We’ve been brainstorming about how to get the community involved [with the coalition],” Jolley said.

Vines added, “I think what we were experiencing was, we had a lot of great efforts, but going in many different directions, and we thought combining our resources we would have better luck with getting the community connection we needed to get any sort of program going.”

He said in dealing with grants you have to show a need, a plan and “probably the most important thing that you need to show is community commitment. You’ve got to make sure that everybody is all on the same page. That includes the prevention people, the school districts because they have the greatest access to our children, parents and community leaders. When you are all on the same page you can make a better argument to the funders that we are ready for change in our community.”

Gunderson said there seems now to be a desire in the community to work together, which was evident with the 30 people in attendance representing many organizations including schools, health care, prevention, courts, and more.

The Jan. 18 meeting was to present the information about Community That Cares and to bring all the stakeholders together.

The next meeting, Feb. 15, Jolley said they want to nail down what problems they want to address first as a coalition. They want input from the community on what problems they think the coalition can have an impact on.

Gunderson said once the issue or issues are decided they will then identify work groups, who will then in turn identify strategies.

Vines said, “Our commitment for this group is to make it a lot of action. We all agree that the community is probably more ready now than before, especially considering some of the issues we’ve been having with our young people and drug use.”

He added that the community’s drug issues are no longer hidden as they are flowing into other crimes and other areas.

“We’ve had two violent crimes involving young people, not minors, involving drugs. The community is starting to talk about it and coming to the realization that there are some serious issues we need to deal with. It is easier when you don’t have a blind eye toward it,” Vines said.

He added that they also have information regarding issues through a recent report from the Wyoming SAC, “The 2016 Wyoming Prevention Needs Assessment.”

The report, Vines said, shows that Washakie County youth are using particular drugs, heroine, at a higher rate than the rest of the state. “We still have a fairly high alcohol use here in Washakie County,” he said.

Other issues of concern from the needs assessment was suicide ideation and connection with their community and schools.

According to the Prevention Needs Assessment on suicide ideation, 30 percent of eighth graders said they had seriously considered attempting suicide in the last 12 months and more than 10 percent for both eighth graders and sophomores in 2016 said they had attempted suicide within the past year.

The survey was for sixth and eighth grade, sophomores and seniors. More than 20 percent of sophomores and seniors each had considered suicide.

“This is something we can all rally around as a community and start working on improving those relationships that we have with our children,” Vines said, regarding community connection. “It takes a caring community to watch out for each other and watch out for each others’ kids. All we’re trying to do is to get people together, get people talking and addressing things we can do.”

He said everyone can help, adult volunteers, faith-based community, school community and others.

Jolley said, “This is not just kids. This is a problem across the community that affects from youth all the way up to adults and even elderly people are at risk … of becoming addicted. It’s not just the kids, it’s just that we have data that reflects the kids.”

She said it is important to have the schools involved in the coalition, one because any programs we’re going to implement we need them on board, but also they come back with ‘we have really good kids in this community.’ We recognize that, we don’t think all the kids are going down the tubes.”

Garcia said, “And we’ve got good families and we’ve got good things going on here.”

Jolley added, however, “We do have this really, scary issue with heroin use, that I don’t think maybe peole don’t really understand how bad heroin use is and how addictive it is and how hard it is too quit. It’s a really scary drug to have in our community.”

Vines added, “You see a clear connection with opioids. You see them coming through courts all the time, stories of how a simple knee surgery can lead to heroin addiction.”

He said, the prevention needs assessment shows some real connective issues that need to be addressed. “In other words, we do have good families, we do have good youth programs and good youth organizations. Are we reaching every kid that we can?”

Jolley said it is important for parents to remember that while they don’t believe their child would ever use heroine or misuse prescription drugs, “but if you’re at party and you are already drunk and someone brings pills or heroine, you’re more likely, because you can’t make good decisions while you’re drunk, to try it then. So it’s not one [drug or alcohol] is worse than the other, it’s just that they’re all here and we need people to know that and to talk to their kids about it. Even as adults, be aware of what can happen if you take prescription medication, even the right way.”

Jolley said the coalition is not here to place blame but rather to show people “we love our community and we want it to be a safe place for everybody.”

Garcia said, “We want to make a measurable change [in the community].”

Gunderson added that coalitions and programs and most effective when it involves everyone.

More on Communities That Care and Drug Free Communities in tomorrow’s Northern Wyoming Daily News.