Since the 1980s, the prevention community in Washington state has gathered each year to reflect on past successes, learn new strategies and network with one another to prevent drug, alcohol and tobacco abuse as well other destructive behaviors.
In Fall 2008, the Washington State Attorney General’s Office provided a significant grant from a recent prescription drug settlement to help expand the highly successful Annual Washington State Prevention Summit, specifically enhancing the youth track.
At the 2008 Fall Summit, youth explored relevant problems facing their peers and learned tools to help them address these problems in their schools and communities with the expectation these youth groups would return in the spring to showcase their work.
In Spring 2009, the Attorney General’s Office and the state Department of Social and Health Services Division of Behavioral Health and Recovery (formerly Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse) hosted the first Spring Prevention Youth Forum to recognize the hard work of youth groups all across our state—whether they developed their own program from scratch or simply implemented an established project at their school.
The goals were threefold:
- Recognize and reward students and advisors who worked to make a difference in our schools and communities.
- Give students the learning opportunity to share their projects, compete to be recognized in various categories and receive fun prizes.
- Encourage sustainability by building on the success of existing student projects, recording the lessons learned and other details about these projects, and sharing with others developing projects in the future.
In Fall 2009, the Attorney General’s Office once again provided a significant grant to help fund the Annual Prevention Summit to:
- Empower youth to continue working in their schools and their communities to help others make healthy choices; and
- Encourage youth to help prevent underage drinking, prescription drug abuse and other destructive decisions.
Together we’re making a difference!