Fighting Back Santa Maria Valley formed in 2003 as the Drug and Alcohol Coalition to educate the community’s youth on tobacco, alcohol, and other substances.
Since then, the nonprofit has continued to address youth substance use by providing youth and parent educational opportunities, school organizations, and community wide events. It hosted its third annual Prevention Summit on May 31, said Gina Cortez, Fighting Back’s Tobacco Use Prevention Education program manager.
“Our goal is to provide up-to-date information to our attendees and members of the community. We like to get the information that’s out there and address the need currently in our areas,” she said.
The summit came from the 2014 Santa Barbara County Tobacco Use Prevention Education grant, which allows Fighting Back to assist the county’s 20 school districts in developing substance prevention and education programs and parent information as an effort to combat youth substance use, Cortez said.
“We continue to offer a parent education component, parent presentations that cover everything. We go into details about paraphernalia, new trends,” she said. “We talk about fentanyl, new code words, we go into great depth to give them the most information they can to start those conversations with children.”
In light of the opioid epidemic and high school student opioid overdoses, Fighting Back is working with Santa Maria Mayor Alice Patino and other community leaders to provide additional presentations in the four quadrants of Santa Maria starting this summer, she said. The presentations will be promoted on social media, sent out through ParentSquare notifications, and included in city press releases.
“We also have a voluntary program called Not on Tobacco for students looking to quit that provides education and support for them,” Cortez added. “We have clubs on campus like the Fresh Air Tobacco Free club for students who want to make a difference, advocating for a tobacco-free campus.”
Fighting Back also provides presentations for sixth graders about the dangers of vaping and information about how it can impact a developing brain.
During the Tobacco Prevention Summit, speakers from county Behavioral Wellness discussed the Headspace mental health app and its new It’s OK website—a campaign that promotes mental health services—gave a presentation on the fentanyl crisis, and conducted a Narcan training, Cortez said. Along with that, there was a special guest speaker who addressed the importance of integrating hip-hop culture into advocacy.
Following presentations, Fighting Back also included Hidden in Plain Sight—a mock teen bedroom that enables parents or guardians to see what paraphernalia is being used and how they are disguised.
“Hidden in Plain Sight is incorporating new trends we are seeing at the schools, new paraphernalia, so we want to keep parents in the know. We will also be having two of our Youth Champions talk about the current trends,” Cortez said.
This mock-up is specifically geared toward parents and educators, and Fighting Back doesn’t film or take pictures of it to prevent this from getting in the hands of the youth and allowing them to learn how to hide things, she added.
“I think it’s important information for everybody, especially if you work with youth, you should be informed,” Cortez said. “We want to be that place [where] you can look for resources and solutions, we want to continue to bring light to it.”
Highlight:
• The Santa Maria Recreation and Parks Department released its Summer Recreation Guide: A comprehensive guide that features a variety of activities for every age group. Activities include art classes, seasonal programs, fitness programs, sports, and community events. The Recreation and Parks Department is particularly excited about the much-anticipated Concerts in the Park Series and new free excursions through the SMORE program. While most programs and events are offered at low or no cost, financial assistance for registration may be available for qualifying individuals through the department’s partnership with People for Leisure and Youth Inc. Visit cityofsantamaria.org to get a copy of the summer guide. Direct questions to the Recreation and Parks Department at (805) 925-0951, Ext. 2260.
Reach Staff Writer Taylor O’Connor at [email protected].
