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\u201cThe Partnership for Drug-Free St. Joseph County\u2019s service area covers the 461 sq. miles of St. Joseph County, Indiana,\u201d said the coalition\u2019s DFC Grant Coordinator Janet Whitfield-Hyduk<\/strong>. \u201cLocated along the Indiana-Michigan border, the county is adjacent to the high intensity drug trafficking area linking Chicago and Detroit. The Indiana toll road running through the northern county is considered a major drug trafficking corridor.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNearly half of the county\u2019s residents live in the ethnically diverse, urban cities of South Bend and Mishawaka,\u201d said Whitfield-Hyduk. \u201cThe city of South Bend is the fourth largest city in Indiana, where 38% of state residents live. The area is served by six public school corporations with an enrollment of almost 40,000 students. Nearly half of these students attend the South Bend Community Schools, where 71% of students receive free or reduced lunch and 67% identify as members of racial or ethnic minority groups.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe coalition formed in 1990 with a grass roots group of concerned citizens under the Governor\u2019s Commission for Drug-Free Indiana,\u201d said Whitfield-Hyduk. \u201cThrough the years, our coalition\u2019s name has changed and we have merged with other groups with the same mission and goals to become the Partnership for Drug-Free St. Joseph County. In October 2018, the coalition was awarded the Drug-Free Communities Support Grant.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cParticipation in our virtual meetings during COVID-19 is not as high as it usually is with in-person meetings,\u201d said Whitfield-Hyduk. \u201cWe realize that it is partly due to not everyone having Zoom or being comfortable using it. Most of our members would rather be able to meet in person. We also haven\u2019t been able to host the events that would have normally taken place to bring community awareness of the coalition and educate community members about alcohol, tobacco and other drugs. We usually participate in events such as back to school fairs, back-pack giveaways, health fairs, etc. We have also struggled with our youth outreach during this time.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe have moved all of our meetings to Zoom,\u201d said Whitfield-Hyduk. \u201cThe Membership Committee has actually been able to increase our membership by identifying potential new members and working with our community awareness efforts. The Community Awareness\/Marketing Workgroup has been able to continue its efforts through working on TV ads, hosting a webinar and holding a virtual community conversation on COVID-19 and the impact on substance use. The Executive Committee has worked on a new website for the coalition and are in the process of updating the by-laws. The Youth Initiatives Workgroup has started meeting, after not being active since March, to work on a youth video contest and red carpet event, to be held in May 2021. The Drug-Free Communities Grant Coordinator has also continued efforts on social media through weekly Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts with parent tips, table talk Tuesdays, tips for teens and Friday facts. She also produces a bi-weekly newsletter that goes out to the membership and anyone who wishes to subscribe.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe are very proud of our ads with one of our local TV news stations, WNDU, and the partnership we have built with them during this year,\u201d said Whitfield-Hyduk. \u201cThe coalition was able to run two different 15-second ads during July, August and September 2020. One of the ads featured coalition members highlighting that \u201cThe Partnership is here for you\u201d during these stressful times. The other ad focused on underage drinking during the summer. The TV station’s graphics department provided the graphics from the script we submitted to them. With both of these ads, we had a combined impact of 210 commercials, 524,914 digital impressions and 482 clicks to our Facebook page.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI would suggest other coalitions addressing the same issues look for ways to continue engaging members and the community virtually during this time,\u201d said Whitfield-Hyduk. \u201cLook for ways to get your message out, even if you can\u2019t do it the way you have in the past. When looking for a media representative who will be active, look for someone who may have a vested interest in supporting your efforts. Our representative is a parent with a teenager who cares about underage substance use.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOur DFC grant director and coordinator will both be attending CADCA\u2019s National Leadership Forum this February, possibly with two members from the Executive Committee,\u201d said Whitfield-Hyduk. \u201cWe have attended Forum and Mid-Year in the past, and look forward to workshops that we can bring back to our members to strengthen us as a group, help us continue to grow as a coalition, offer new ideas and activities that we can implement in our community and provide opportunities to learn more about what is going on with alcohol, tobacco and other drugs.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis year has seen many changes for The Partnership,\u201d said Whitfield-Hyduk. \u201cNew officers took over in<\/p>\n January, and while they were still learning about their roles with the coalition, the pandemic hit. The Executive Committee has done a great job of weathering through all of this while working hard to keep the coalition moving forward and looking for ways to continue engaging members. Those accomplishments include a name change for the coalition that is a better description of what we are about, a new website geared toward the community and increased social media presence.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cThe Partnership for Drug-Free St. Joseph County\u2019s service area covers the 461 sq. miles of St. Joseph County, Indiana,\u201d said<\/p>","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":13370,"template":"","resource_type":[281],"drug_specific_issues":[],"action_to_do":[],"class_list":["post-17103","resource","type-resource","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","resource_type-coalitions-online"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n