![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.cadca.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/co12-10-20.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWest Spokane Wellness Partnership is a community coalition located in West Spokane, Washington,\u201d said Coalition Coordinator Sarah McNew<\/strong>. \u201cThe coalition is currently in its ninth year of service. In 2019, the United States Census Bureau estimated the city’s\u00a0population\u00a0at 222,081 and the\u00a0population\u00a0of the\u00a0Spokane\u00a0Metropolitan\u00a0Area\u00a0at 573,493.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe unique challenge our coalition is facing is reaching and engaging youth and families,\u201d said McNew. \u201cWe are currently partnering with Greater Spokane Substance Abuse Council and hosting a year-long Youth Leadership Forum, addressing key topics such as substance use and misuse, mental health, living without a home and safety. The youth in the forum have identified COVID-19 as being an incredible stressor, due to the responsibility it has placed on them to be accountable for their own personal health and safety and the health and safety of others around them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWest Spokane Wellness Partnership and three new community coalitions recently graduated three families in our first \u2018Virtual Strengthening Families\u2019 series,\u201d said McNew. \u201cOur coalition just hosted a drive-thru National Prescription Take Back Day where we secured 100 pounds of medication and distributed 40+ medication lock boxes to community members. We are currently partnering to host and facilitate a \u2018Youth Leadership\u2019 series in our community. We have also released a \u2018Holiday PSA: Driving Impaire\u2019 billboard and poster, and developed a \u2018True\/False\u2019 campaign for community engagement. We also released Radio PSA\u2019s via iHeartRadio and Pandora, highlighting the \u2018Starts With One Opioid\u2019 campaign and the \u2018Talk, They Hear You\u2019 campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are most proud of our \u2018Positive Social Norm\u2019 training with Montana Institute,\u201d said McNew. \u201cWe recently developed and released our first \u2018Positive Social Norm\u2019 campaign poster and billboard, building capacity for positive social norms in our community. We also disseminated over 1500 positive social norm message posters to our local community.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMy advice to anyone working during these challenging times is to reach out to other coalitions in your communities, region and nationally and find out what they are doing, how they are doing and what is working for them,\u201d said McNew. \u201cThere are so many amazing people and coalitions doing great work during this pandemic and it is crucial that we connect with one another, support one another and collectively share ideas. Give yourself grace, be patient with the process and try to keep a strengths-based perspective. I have been a coalition coordinator for four years and, although the pandemic has been stressful and made it hard to reach the community at times, it has also been a blessing because it has allowed for our coalition to invest time in planning, being very intentional and strategic in implementation and creating new partnerships.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOur coalition is currently building capacity for a youth coalition, youth leadership and youth engagement,\u201d said McNew. \u201cWe will be attending CADCA Forum this February and would love to learn valuable skills and tools to help support our youth in our community and empower them as youth prevention leaders.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cWest Spokane Wellness Partnership is a community coalition located in West Spokane, Washington,\u201d said Coalition Coordinator Sarah McNew. \u201cThe coalition<\/p>","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":13368,"template":"","resource_type":[281],"drug_specific_issues":[],"action_to_do":[],"class_list":["post-17102","resource","type-resource","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","resource_type-coalitions-online"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n