TIVERTON, RI – U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, and Congressman Gabe Amo announced that the Little Compton-Tiverton Prevention Coalition was awarded a $125,000 federal grant for the Drug-Free Communities (DFC) Support Program. This funding, which was provided by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) in cooperation with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), will help support efforts in Little Compton and Tiverton to reduce youth substance use.
The DFC Support Program provides funding to coalitions that collaborate with the community using a variety of environmental strategies to address local substance use problems. The Little Compton-Tiverton coalition serves 19,887 people and will focus on addressing marijuana and nicotine use by youth between the ages of 12-18.
“I’m pleased to support local, effective efforts to help prevent smoking, vaping, and drug use that is part of a concerted, multi-faceted community response,” said Senator Jack Reed. “This is a smart investment in public health and student well-being.”
“Rhode Island’s Drug-Free Communities coalitions help stop drug use before it starts so that kids can grow up healthy,” said Senator Whitehouse, author of the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act, the law guiding the federal response to the opioid epidemic. “This federal investment in the work of the Little Compton-Tiverton Prevention Coalition will help keep young people safe, supported, and drug-free.”
“Addiction is a struggle that does not discriminate, affecting individuals of all ages and backgrounds,” said Congressman Gabe Amo. “I’m proud to see that this federal funding will help combat local substance use problems for those in Little Compton and Tiverton. We must come together to invest in community prevention efforts and support evidence-based local prevention to help our next generation.”
“The residents of Little Compton & Tiverton, especially those of school age, will benefit greatly from participation in this program,” said Little Compton-Tiverton Prevention Coalition Coordinator Brian Gough. “Our Coalition is thrilled with the government team’s recognition of our goals and abilities to reduce substance use in the youth in our towns. We look forward to providing strong programs and activities to meet our goals in the coming years.”
Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released data from the 2024 National Youth Tobacco Survey (NYTS) on e-cigarette and nicotine pouch use among U.S. youth: “Notes from the Field: E-cigarette and Nicotine Pouch Use Among Middle and High School Students—United States, 2024.” On a national level, the FDA reported “a significant drop” in the number of U.S. middle and high school students who reported current e-cigarette use – defined as the past 30 days — a drop from 2.13 million (7.7 percent) youth in 2023 to 1.63 million (5.9 percent) youth in 2024.
“The Biden-Harris Administration has made supporting our nation’s youth and strengthening their well-being a top priority in our whole-of-society efforts to address the overdose epidemic,” said ONDCP Director Dr. Rahul Gupta. “This new funding, awarded through our Drug-Free Communities Support Program, will help local coalitions in states like Rhode Island prevent youth substance use in their communities.”
BACKGROUND
The Drug-Free Communities (DFC) Support Program, created by the Drug-Free Communities Act of 1997, is the nation’s leading effort to mobilize communities to prevent youth substance use. Directed and funded by ONDCP, in partnership with the CDC National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, the DFC Program provides grants to community-based coalitions to address youth substance use, implement evidence-based prevention strategies, and ultimately save lives.
Over the past four years, the Biden-Harris Administration has made historic investments to strengthen local youth prevention efforts and public awareness campaigns on the dangers of illicit fentanyl and the life-saving effects of naloxone. To further strengthen the Administration’s whole-of-society efforts to address the nation’s overdose epidemic, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Dr. Gupta sent a letter calling on schools and educators nationwide to adopt evidence-based youth substance use prevention measures and have opioid overdose reversal agents like naloxone on site and ensure their students and faculty are prepared to use it to save lives in the event of drug poisoning.
