Anti-substance abuse advocates here and in Warren hope a new $625,000 matching grant from the federal government will help reduce drug and alcohol use by teenagers in this region.

Members of the Warren Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition recently won the five-year grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and will run the program out of the ground floor of Warren Town Hall starting Friday, Feb. 1.

The program will be headed by director Ann Marie Roy, who according to program documents will be paid $52,000 per year. She will step down as Warren’s Social Services director to take on her new role, and several substance abuse experts and administrators have also been hired to help the program fulfill its goals: Spreading awareness of substance abuse issues here, forming youth groups in local schools, and attempting to bring down some of the usage numbers they’ve seen in past surveys and studies of local usage.

Those other staffers include Maria Ursini of Bristol, who will work 20 hours per week at a salary of $40,000, and John Mattson, a substance abuse prevention consultant who will serve as program evaluator at approximately $13,000 per year. He will be responsible for conducting surveys, talking to constituents, preparing presentations and working to develop strategies based on the numbers he finds.

“We need a lot more awareness,” said Ms. Ursini, who along with Mr. Mattson was hired as the program’s coordinator earlier this month by a vote of the Warren Town Council.

“We want to bring in programs” that help address the local need, she said.

The grant will be distributed over five years, with the program receiving $125,000 in funds each year to go to salaries, events, publicity and public relations pursuits, and other costs. Those federal funds will be coupled with local and state funding sources and if the program is successful, officials will be invited to re-apply for another five years; the maximum term of funding is two grants and 10 years.

Hirings
Ms. Ursini, who is also director of the Bristol Senior Center and formerly worked for the Bristol Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition, was reinstated to her role at the senior center last fall, months after she was charged by Bristol Police for her dual, full-time roles — as senior center director and coalition director, simultaneously. Town Administrator Steven Contente argued that Ms. Ursini could not, and should not, have two, full-time jobs at the same time. Ms. Ursini maintained that she did nothing wrong and her supervisors knew what was happening.

The case was settled with Ms. Ursini paying $698.43 in restitution and court fees, and shortly after the court proceedings, Ms. Ursini was re-instated to the senior center. Her new role demands a 20-hour-per-week commitment.

Warren Town Council president Keri Cronin said last week that the council’s vote to approve Ms. Ursini’s hiring, as well as Mr. Mattson’s, came on the recommendation of Ms. Roy and others:

“There was an interview process that (Ms. Roy) and her group pulled together,” she said. “Yes, there have been some red flags with Maria, but we were assured by the body who interviewed her (and Mr. Mattson) that they were fully aware of the backgrounds of both of the candidates and their eminent qualifications. We felt like the due diligence had been done in vetting them.”

Moving forward
On Tuesday morning, Ms. Ursini said she acknowledges that some might have questions about the past legal issues in Bristol. But she said she and the others in the program are dedicated to faithfully fulfilling the terms of the grant, and they are excited to get going on new initiatives.

“We want to stay within our action plan,” she said. “Our goal is to reduce alcohol, marijuana and prescription” drug abuse.

In her role, Ms. Ursini will be responsible for coming up with programs and outreach in the schools and larger community, and reaching not just kids but in some cases parents of kids who might not always have the healthiest views on adolescent substance use. 

With so much talk of marijuana legalization in the news, she said, it’s not just kids who need to be informed of its dangers; it’s adults, too.

The problem with teaching the dangers of marijuana use these days, she said, is not just that it is being normalized in society, but also that it is often hard to convince parents who grew up using that it can be dangerous to teenagers.

“We need to reach these people,” she said.

One possible way among many is by re-establishing a family dinner program that was run here locally about a decade ago. In that program, substance abuse officials would have regular community dinners at places including Perella’s in Warren and Leo’s in Bristol, and once at Kickemuit Middle School, where ideas could be talked about in a social setting.

“I think awareness is one of the biggest things,” said retired Kickemuit Middle School principal Michael Carbone, who is now active with the coalition. “We need more awareness, but I don’t think we’ve hit the right buttons to make the right people aware.”

And what is awareness?

“To me, that if somebody hears of an adult or child that’s using, they know the steps to take. It’s about educating the public,” he said.

Clear goals
Though many of the program’s goals are geared toward increasing awareness and collaboration, officials have also set lofty expectations and hope to make a clear difference in usage rates among teens in Warren and those who attend regional schools here. Those include:

• Reduce past 30-day usage of alcohol among students in grades seven through 12 by 25 percent over the life of the grant.
•  Reduce past 30-day usage of alcohol among the same peer set by 35 percent over the life of the grant.
  
• Reduce past 3-day usage of prescription drugs among the same peer set by 25 percent over the life of the grant.
  

“Our mission is to reduce substance abuse in the long term,” Ms. Roy said.