Coalition Renamed. Looks to a Bright Future.

The Middlesex County Substance Abuse Coalition has been renamed Coalition for Healthy Communities.

The move is designed to better align the Coalition’s name to reflect the community it serves and the diversity of its members. The Coalition’s mission is to reduce substance abuse, especially among youth, by providing opportunities for increased collaboration, coordinated planning, and sharing of resources, thereby maximizing the quality and availability of services to the communities and residents of Middlesex County. The new name will allow the Coalition to uphold its mission by encouraging participation and collaboration from all community sectors.

The Coalition for Healthy Communities is comprised of a group of diverse individuals concerned with creating and maintaining a healthy environment. These individuals bring passion to the prevention and treatment of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug abuse problems. To help assure the success of the Coalition, a “Back to Basics” retreat was held on February 26th at UMDNJ’s Clinical Academic Building in New Brunswick.

Over two dozen Coalition members attended the event, which focused on the development and implementation of three new committees: Fundraising, Outreach, and Youth. Presentations on the three committee areas were given by Diana Starace (Injury Prevention Coordinator at Robert Wood Johnson Hospital) and Richard Emanuel (Care House Director for the Salvation Army) on Fundraising, Alison Glaser (VP of Community Services at Planned Parenthood of Central New Jersey) and Bill Ussery (Community Relations Representative at Summit Oaks Hospital) on Outreach, and Dana Lee Brown (Perinatal Addictions Risk Reduction Specialist at Central New Jersey Maternal and Child Health Consortium, Inc.) and Robin Lavorato (Chairperson at the Monroe Township) Municipal Alliance on Youth. The presenters spoke about progress that has been made in these areas previously, as well as issues the Coalition needs to address in order to continue making progress in the future.

After the presentations, attendees brainstormed in groups to create new ideas, activities, or events which the new committees could use to increase fundraising, community outreach, and youth involvement. All of the ideas developed during the brainstorming were later combined in work groups specific to each area. The work groups selected the strongest ideas and developed action plans to enable their implementation. The new committees were formed from the members of each work groups.

All three committees selected Chairpersons who presented their action plans to the attendees. The Fundraising Chairpersons are Padma Arvind and Jose Cruz, the Outreach Chairpersons are Bill Ussery and Irfat Chowdhury, and the Youth Chairperson is Robin Lavorato. All agreed to meet in the near future to begin implementing recommended action steps.

In addition to forming new committees, each Retreat attendee renewed their commitment to the Coalition. A short presentation was given by Alexandra Lopez of NCADD in which she empowered individuals to actively engage in commitment to the Coalition. At the end of the Retreat, attendees signed a new membership agreement form that established their new commitment to the Coalition.