Watertown Youth Peer Leaders Attend Training for Preventing Substance Abuse

WATERTOWN, MA – Two high school peer leaders from Watertown attended a week-long training convention in Las Vegas last month on best practices for combating youth substance abuse.

Shariel Joseph and Kaitlyn Tracy were among 200 teens who attended the 2016 Mid-Year Training Institute, hosted by the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America. They were accompanied by Waltham peer leaders Junia Gauvin and Shy Civil, as well as Wayside Youth & Family Support Network Advisors Shanesha Christmas and Dawn Graham from the Watertown Youth Coalition and Waltham Youth & Community Coalition.

The week-long workshop, held at The Mirage, consisted of about 2,000 substance abuse and treatment prevention specialists from across the country and offered more than 70 half-day and two-day courses on addressing the substance use crisis.

Teens who attended received the opportunity to take part in the CADCA's youth-led, adult-guided National Youth Leadership Initiative, where they learned how to become drug prevention advocates and community leaders.

Joseph, Tracy, Gauvin and Civil also participated in the Medicine Safety Youth Educators Pilot Project; with the assistance of adult advisors, they will develop a strategic implementation plan and deliver the Over-the-Counter Medicine Safety program to 5th and 6th graders this fall.

"The CADCA training was really empowering," Joseph said in a press release. "CADCA taught me that youth like me can make a big change in their community if they set their minds to it."

This year's mid-year session featured a number of substance abuse and prevention experts, with a keynote presentation by Dr. Moira O'Neil, senior researcher and director of interpretation at the Frameworks Institute.

The training covered topics ranging from preventing prescription drug abuse and reducing heroin use to creating tobacco-free environments, reducing impaired driving and developing policies to reduce marijuana use, synthetic drug abuse and underage drinking.

"The Mid-Year is a unique professional development opportunity for anyone trying to prevent and reduce drug abuse, and its related problems, in their community," Gen. Arthur T. Dean, CADCA's chairman and CEO, said in the release. "After four days of intensive training, participants will return to their communities with new skills and strategies, and a clearer roadmap to create environments where young people can thrive."

• Clockwise from bottom-left: Shariel Joseph and Kaitlyn Tracy (WYC Peer Leaders) teamed up with Shy Civil and Junia Gauvin (WYACC Trailblazers) at CADCA’s Mid-Year Training Institute

Photo submitted by the Wayside Multi-Service Center