Grant Announcement: Community Wellness Grants (Vermont)

Grant: The Vermont Department of Health will award a total of $1.2 million beginning in July 2012 to prevent chronic disease and promote wellness in communities around the state. The grants are designed to target alcohol and drug use, nutrition and physical activity, and tobacco control – and to expand the Healthy Retailers initiative.

Funder: Vermont Department of Health.

Amount: Communities can be awarded up to $130,000 each for a one-year project period. Responders to the RFP must apply to work on at least two of the following program areas:

1. Alcohol and Drug Abuse – up to $40,000 available

2. Nutrition and Physical Activity – up to $40,000 available

3. Tobacco Control – up to $40,000 available

In addition, all applicants must agree to participate in the Healthy Retailers project and may request up to $10,000 for this work.

Contact: Katie Martinez, Vermont Department of Health, 108 Cherry Street, PO Box 70, Burlington, VT 05402, (802) 863-7204, vdhcoalitiongrant@state.vt.us

Click here to view RFP details.

Deadline: February 15, 2012.

Grant Announcement: Kansas Substance Abuse Prevention Mini-Grants

Grant: Kansas Family Partnership announces the release of a Request for Proposal (RFP) to fund a minimum of 20 mini-grants to Kansas coalitions through grant funding from the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services (SRS), Division of Disability and Behavioral Health Services, Addiction and Prevention Services. The purpose of these mini-grants is to assist coalitions in their efforts to reduce underage alcohol use (defined as past 30-day alcohol use and binge drinking among students in grades 6, 8, 10 and 12) and/or past 30-day cigarette use and/or 30-day smokeless tobacco use.

Funder: Kansas Family Partnership.

Eligibility: To be eligible to apply community coalitions must be registered on the Kansas Family Partnership coalition registry website at www.kansasfamily.com. Registration will be available on this website by February 2, 2012. Information required for registry includes the following: coalition name, contact information, and county. Additional information may also be entered into the registry such as membership roster, vision and mission statement, assessment data, logic model, strategic plan and evaluation plan. Community coalitions are comprised of parents, teachers, law enforcement, businesses, religious leaders, health care providers and other community leaders and activists. Coalitions mobilize at the local level to make their communities safe, healthier and drug free.

Amount: Up to $10,000 – Grants will range from $3,000 to $10,000 depending on their scope and estimated reach.

Contact: Send questions to ksfampart@kansasfamily.com by February 3, 2012. Answers will be posted on www.kansasfamily.com by February 7, 2012.

Click here for detailed RFP information.

Deadline: February 13, 2012.

A way to steer teens away from alcohol and drug abuse

A recent article from the New York Daily News reported the logic behind teen addiction to alcohol and drug abuse. David Moore, a licensed psychologist and chemical dependency professional, spoke with Bill Manville about teen drug and alcohol usage correlates with driving. “Almost every kid loves to drive. If a youth is going to flaunt their ‘right to party,’ I encourage parents to withhold the privilege to drive,” Moore said. He claims that the best way of having teens avoid driving under the influence of any substance is to reinforce the notion that “it affects the ability to drive.”

To read the full interview, click here.

SAMHSA accepting applications for up to $15.6 million to fund STOP Act grants

Grant: The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) is accepting applications for up to a four year total of $15.6 million to fund STOP Act grants aimed at preventing alcohol use among underage youth in communities across the nation.

The STOP Act program was created to strengthen collaboration among communities, the Federal Government, state, local and tribal governments in order to enhance effective efforts for reducing alcohol use among youth. This mission includes disseminating timely information to communities about state-of-the-art practices and initiatives that have proven to be effective in preventing and reducing alcohol use among youth. The STOP Act program enhances, not supplants, effective local community initiatives for preventing and reducing alcohol use among youth.

Amount: SAMHSA anticipates providing funding up to $50,000 annually in individual grants for up to 78 grantees for up to a four year period. Actual amounts may vary, depending on the availability of funds.

Eligibility: The application must be submitted by domestic public and private non- profit entities that are current or former Drug Free Communities Support Program (DFC) grantees and who have not previously received a STOP Act award.

Application: Requests for a complete application package for SP-12-003 can be made from SAMHSA at 1-877-SAMHSA7 [TDD: 1-800-487-4889]. The required documents may also be downloaded from the SAMHSA Web site at http://www.samhsa.gov/grants/.

Contact: For questions about program issues contact Dan Fletcher at (240) 276-2578 or email dan.fletcher@samhsa.hhs.gov.

For information on grants management and budget issues contact Virginia Simmons at (240) 276-1422 or email virginia.simmons@samhsa.hhs.gov.

Deadline: March 6, 2012

PCCD Grant Announcement: Programs to Benefit Children of Luzerne County (Pennsylvania)

PCCD’s Programs to Benefit Children of Luzerne County

 

Grant: The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) is now accepting concept papers to fund programs that benefit children of Luzerne County. Priority consideration will be given to projects that are data-driven and supported by research as to their effectiveness. The goal of the initiative under this solicitation is to support programs that benefit the health, safety and general welfare of children of Luzerne Count, and must be applicale and/or accessible to children residing in Luzerne County.

Funder: The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.

Funding Available: $2,166,750.

Contact: All questions must be sent by email to Wendy Poston at wposton@pa.gov in order for all potential applicants to benefit from this process. Answers will be available to all parties who register to receive them through the email process.

More grant information can be found here, click on Programs to Benefit Children of Luzerne County under Funding Announcement Title.

Deadline: March 12, 2012.

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Boston transit to ban alcohol advertisements this summer

Starting on July  1, 2012, all Boston public transportation systems will be banning alcohol-related advertisements from subway cars, trains, and buses. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) said that ad revenue will “drop by about $1.5 million in the first year of the alcohol ad ban.” New York City and Chicago, two other cities with major public transit systems, will still run equipped with alcohol advertisements.

MBTA already bans advertisements for “tobacco, firearms, violence and nudity.”

Source: Newsroom.

FDA to evaluate smokeless tobacco products

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration will be evaluating healthy and safety risks of “dissolvables,” which are smokless tobacco products. Dissolvables can come in the form of flavored mints, dissolvables strips to put on the tongue, or smokeless tobacco sticks. These products are not used to prevent further tobacco use but to aid nicotine cravings in places where smoking is banned.

The FDA is investigating if these products put children at risk for nicotine addiction or poisoning. Two companies will be test marketing smokeless tobacco products in different cities in the country – R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. will be testing Camel brand Orbs, Strips, and Sticks, all smokeless tobacco products. The other company, Star Scientific Inc., will be testing Ariva and Stonewall, two dissolvable tobacco products.

To read more about the FDA’s evaluation, click here.

 

New Training Dates Posted for February

The Training Schedule has been updated with new online training dates for the month of February. There is also another Classroom Management Strategies Webinar scheduled for Wednesday, January 29th at 2pm ET. If you missed this past Tuesday’s webinar, you can certainly attend this one. Click here to reserve a spot!

Alcohol ads found appealing by teens online

Alcohol distributors are limited to having a certain amount of exposure on ordinary mediums such as radio, television, and print. Their advertisements are meant to resonate to an audience that is legally allowed to consume alcohol. However, there are different constraints on the Internet, that allow them to reach younger audiences, especially on social media websites.

David Jernigan is the Director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland. He believes that young people are being exposed to alcohol-related advertisements and imagery mostly on the Internet through social media sites such as Facebook and YouTube. Jernigan states that the alcohol advertisements on the Internet are “far more than I think most parents or adults are aware of.” He deemed the Internet “the wild west without a sheriff.”

The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS), the organization in charge of responsible advertising and marketing of alcoholic beverages, set forth new guidelines for alcohol companies to follow if they have social networking websites open to public view.  Some of these guideline include “age-gating” before a person is allowed to enter the site. The legal age for the consumption of alcohol in the United States is 21 and older. The Council believes that “Social networking sites are used primarily by adults, which makes these platforms responsible and appropriate channels for spirits marketers.” However, considering that 22% of Facebook users are between the ages of 13 and 20, Jernigan hopes for tighter content controls as today’s technology becomes more advanced and it’s users become smarter.

To read the full article, click here.