About the Nonprofit
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Mission: PreventEd works to reduce or prevent the harms of alcohol and other drug use through education, intervention and advocacy. With over 50 years experience, formerly under the name NCADA, PreventEd is committed to guiding all people through tough conversations around alcohol and other drugs. The work is rooted in experience, knowledge of best practices and evidence-informed programs. Founded in 1965, PreventEd was originally a regional chapter of the National Council on Alcoholism. The mission was to change the stigma surrounding alcohol use disorder and help those struggling to find recovery. This idea remains central in PreventEd’s assessment and referral program, community strategy, advocacy efforts, and public health campaigns.
PreventEd’s central focus in programming is K-12, in-school prevention education. PreventEd has been a leader in the field of substance use prevention programs since 1980 and today we are the largest provider of school-based prevention programs in Missouri. Our experienced staff of teachers and counselors share a genuine passion for making a difference and improving our prevention programs. Our prevention programs are continually updating and improving through regular evaluation, meeting with individual teachers and schools, and keeping up with the best research.
Current, engaging, and interactive. We reach over 64,000 students each year and work with 260 schools and youth organizations. Our school-based programs are designed to equip people with the knowledge and skills to change their attitudes and behaviors towards substances.
Our programs are age appropriate, In K-5, we rarely talk about alcohol and drugs. Instead, we build life skills, like how to appropriately express feelings, manage anger, and solve problems peacefully. Our lessons are fun, engaging, and age appropriate. Programs are designed to-
· Build resiliency skills in youth, kindergarten thru college
· Create better learners and more cooperative students
· Develop skills to refuse peer pressure, build healthy friendships and make low-risk choices
· Create peer groups and leadership opportunities that promote bonding to school and community
PreventEd’s school-based prevention programs are designed to demonstrate change in behaviors, attitudes, and knowledge in students.
Middle school is full of new experiences for kids as they enter their pre-teens: they are approaching puberty, have increasing responsibilities, and face exposure to dangerous behaviors like drugs and alcohol.
They can also hear many myths about the world, drugs, alcohol, and other topics circulating in the halls at school.
Our lessons recognize the landmines that middle schoolers encounter each day and teach them how to navigate things like peer influence, alcohol, and drugs in a healthy way. They also learn valuable life skills like setting and achieving goals.
High school students are preparing for life after high school and are on the verge of becoming adults. There can be a lot of stress that comes with this time of life. While experimentation among teens is a trend that is in decline, teens may turn to drugs or alcohol during high school for several reasons, including:
Peer pressure
Stress or anxiety
Curiosity
Boredom
In addition to education at home, schools play a huge role in drug prevention among teens.
Check Your Attitude
As adults we probably remember the anti-drug programs of our youths using fear-based tactics that has since been shown to be ineffective and harmful. At PreventEd, we know that these methods don’t work.
Our programs feature scientific, fact-based drug information with no preaching, judgment, or exaggeration. Instead, we equip teenagers with the knowledge they need so they can make informed choices and decisions, and act as responsible members of society
We also help students recognize the myths surrounding drugs and alcohol, and the symptoms of substance misuse.
Parent Meetings
Parent meetings are a series of programs that are typically an hour or more.
These programs are designed to help parents resolve conflicts with their children in a healthy, respectful way and help build awareness of drugs and other substances.
Colleges/Universities
PreventEd offers knowledgeable guest lecturers to colleges and universities. We also provide colleges and universities with the resources needed to implement campus-wide alcohol, tobacco, and other drug awareness or prevention programming.
Community-Based Programs
PreventEd offers community-based programs, typically free of charge in the St. Louis area. These programs can be tailored to suit the community’s needs.
Community Coalitions
The Prevention Resource Center (PRC) at PreventEd works with grassroots community organizations to address and fight substance misuse. Be it local businesses, parents, schools, law enforcement, or faith communities, PreventEd staff can provide training, resource, and education.
Town Halls
Involving the community as a whole to help seek solutions about the problems a community is facing is an effective way to tackle those issues.
Town halls can be an effective way to raise awareness of substance misuse in a community. Our speakers are available to organize and present at the town hall about alcohol, tobacco, or drug abuse.
Elevate
Elevate is a teen-led coalition that discusses the importance of mental health in young adults. Designed for 9th-12th graders of all backgrounds, this program examines the similarities between mental health and outside factors like substance use and promotes mental wellness in our community.
Youth Advocacy
At PreventEd, we advocate for our youth and teach them how to be strong advocates for themselves. Through Elevate and Speak Hard, young people learn about advocacy and substance use prevention, as well as spending an afternoon at the State Capitol meeting with legislators and learning about how legislation may prevent alcohol, tobacco, and drug abuse.
Teen Institute
Is a 4-day retreat designed to train 75-100 high school students to prevent substance misuse among their peers. Hosted by our team of prevention educators and a full-time nurse, these professionals work with teens who are committed to promoting healthy lifestyles in not only their own life but the lives of those around them.
Our youth leadership programs equip these motivated young people with information and skills that establish them as credible sources and as role models for their fellow students at a critical stage in their development. TI gives teens the ability to increase their peers’ awareness of the risks of substance use, correct dangerous myths and misinformation about alcohol and other drugs, encourage healthy choices and behaviors, and counter false perceptions of non-drug users as being boring or uncool.
PreventEd is a 501(c)(3) non-profit. EIN: 43-0827852
Prevent operates one of Missouri’s ten prevention resource centers (PRC). And provide training and support services to 30 community coalitions throughout Eastern Missouri. We work in tandem with these organizations to identify the unique problems facing their communities, and develop tailored strategies to address those concerns.
Serving Missouri through the seven county region of St Louis City and County, St. Charles, Jefferson, Franklin, Lincoln and Warren.
We receive the support of the Saint Louis County Children’s Service Fund, (SAMHSA) Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Association, Health Resources and Services Administration, Division of Behavioral Health, Missouri Foundation for Health, Saint Louis Mental Health Board, Department of Mental Health, private foundations and individual donors.
Local and National Recognition:
· The Women’s Foundation of Greater St. Louis, “Top Place for Women to Work” 2019 and 2020
· Focus St. Louis, “What’s Right with the Region” Award 2019
· FBI, Director’s Community Leadership Award 2018
· United Way of Greater St. Louis, classified as a full member agency that meets all quality assurance standards
· Missouri Division of Behavioral Health
· Better Business Bureau of Eastern Missouri and Southern Illinois, TORCH Award 2013 and 2018
· The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, who has named PreventEd a regional Top Workplace since 2013
· The Archway Chapter of LINKS, recognized for excellence in providing educational services to African-American youth
· The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, Outstanding Community Prevention Effort Award 2012
Addiction is a treatable disease, but it takes a change in perspective, ideology, and community support to combat it together.
Each year PreventEd serves more than 100,000 people throughout Missouri's Eastern region, including St. Louis City and the counties of St. Louis, St. Charles, Jefferson, Franklin, Lincoln, and Warren.
We offer resources and support for community coalitions seeking to mount effective responses to drug and alcohol issues through grass root activities and public policy advocacy. Our community strategists train first responders, treatment professionals, and members of the public to effectively handle heroin/opioid overdose situations, distribute Naloxone, and so much more.
Nearly 17,000 Missouri adolescents suffer from a substance use disorder. Substance use contributes to all three leading causes of teen death: accidents, suicide, and homicide. The effects can be substantial and last a lifetime, and can include impaired development, damaged mental function, and a hindrance to the acquisition of social skills and decision-making abilities. Dependency and addiction wreak havoc on every life they touch, leaving behind a trail of destruction littered with physical and mental illness, injury, crime, child abuse and neglect, sexual assault, and homelessness.
While the opiate epidemic and substance use disorders tighten their grip … helping our young people avoid the horrors of substance misuse cannot wait until poverty and social inequality are resolved. Our community’s youth need help today, and we need your help to do it.
We need partners like you to work with us to help provide this critically important programming for kids in these counties.
Every dollar we receive to fund prevention programming helps more K-12 students learn about the realities of alcohol and other drug misuse, how to protect themselves, experience and deal with emotions in a positive way, and to grow into healthy, happy leaders of their community.
Statistics provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that overdose deaths topped 100,000 for the 12 months ending in April, including 2,004 deaths in Missouri. The National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics said fentanyl is a factor in more than half of all overdose deaths.
Scott Hadland, the chief of adolescent and young adult medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital, said the pandemic worsened mental health issues among teens who do use drugs and may have caused more frequent use, raising the risk of tragic outcomes. The pandemic also interrupted treatment programs.
“Of all my patients with addiction of any kind, and particularly opioid addiction, it’s really the rule and not the exception to have coexisting mental health struggles,” Hadland said.
