San Juan and Orcas both have one, and now Lopez is hopping on board.

The Lopez community is joining forces to create a Lopez Island Prevention Coalition to help reduce drug and alcohol use among youth through healthy activities, community awareness, and parent education.

Lopez School superintendent Bill Evans, public health nurse Martha Sharon, Lopez Family Resource Executive Director Celia Marquis, and parent Georgeana Cook have spearheaded the effort. The goal is to reduce high risk behaviors among our youth, and they believe, through collaborative efforts with a Lopez Prevention Coalition, that it’s possible to tailor an effective, comprehensive solution to this multi-faceted problem.

The group organized an informational meeting on Aug. 21 with some key members of the community, including Sheriff Bill Cumming, Lopez deputies, church members, therapists, representatives from non-profits, and the Orcas and San Juan coalition directors.

John Manning, Director of San Juan County Health and Community Services, and San Juan Prevention Coalition Coordinator Cynthia Stark-Wickman spoke about the process of forming a coalition. Stark-Wickman has been helping get the Lopez Coalition off the ground, and applied for a $35,000 mentoring grant from Drug Free Communities (DFC) through the San Juan Coalition. The grant was approved last week, and it will allow Stark-Wickman to “mentor us through the process,” said Sharon.

The next major financial step is to apply for a larger DFC federal grant, which has been awarded to both Orcas and San Juan in the past. With DFC funds, Lopez could hire a coordinator and provide additional resources for prevention activities and education for up to 10 years. In order to fulfill the grant requirements, the Coalition needs an endorsement from 12 sectors of the community: healthcare professionals, businesses, law enforcement agencies, school, youth serving organizations, media, religious organizations, civic groups, state, local, or tribal Governmental agencies, an organization involved with reducing substance abuse, and youth.

Sharon says they will spend these next months further developing the coalition from representatives of the 12 sectors, holding regular meetings, forums, and activities that support the work of the coalition, developing a strategic plan for substance abuse prevention on Lopez Island, and participate in training that is required by the grantee. She hopes the Lopez Coalition will apply for a DFC grant this spring.

The coalition movement on Lopez has its roots in Leadership San Juan Islands, a countywide tuition-based program designed to educate and motivate community members interested in developing their professional leadership skills. Sharon, Cook, and Evans were all in a LSJI class together, and they started throwing around ideas for Lopez youth. Lopez Island Teen Events (LITE) was born out of those discussions, and they began holding activities for youth like movie nights and game nights. The Lopez Family Resource Center jumped in to help and contributed a teen coordinator. Forming a Lopez Prevention Coalition seemed like the logical next step.

“We want to further develop a positive community culture” for preventing drug and alcohol use among youth, said Evans during the meeting. Once a coalition is established, the bulk of the work is done by a hired coordinator and the board of trustees, but an initial boost from the community is needed to get it off the ground. “It takes a half dozen people willing to work over a year to get it going,” said Manning.

Attendees at the meeting seemed to agree that the forming of a coalition was timely for Lopez. “One of the most unfortunate things is that it takes a tragedy to wake people up. The other islands have experienced them. Lopez has been lucky, but it’s only a matter of time,” said Sheriff Cumming.

For more information about the Lopez Prevention Coalition, call Martha Sharon at 370-7515 or Bill Evans at 468-2202.