Contact: Beth Stone (508) 584-8120
BROCKTON – The Plymouth Youth Development Collaborative (PYDC) has
been awarded a $125,000 Drug-Free Communities Support Program grant by the White
House Drug Policy Office in cooperation with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration, Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz announced.
The PYDC grant was announced this week as part of 719 Drug-Free Communities
Support Program grants that totaled $89 million, the largest-ever number of DFC
grantees in a single year since DFC’s founding. The grants are designed to provide local
community coalitions funding to prevent youth substance use, including prescription
drugs, marijuana, tobacco and alcohol. PYDC serves the community of Plymouth and the
coalition goals are to establish and strengthen community collaboration in support of
local efforts to prevent youth substance use. PYDC will focus its DFC grant efforts on
reducing youth marijuana and opioid use and will achieve those goals by implementing
the following strategies:
- Train law enforcement, schools, and youth-serving agencies on Adverse
Childhood Experiences and how exposure to trauma increases a child’s risk of
misusing substances - Increase youth and parental perception of harm towards marijuana
- Reduce access to prescription drugs
- Collect and assess youth substance use data
- Provide information to the community and Plymouth region on current youth
substance use trends and best practices - Increase collaboration by engaging and recruiting diverse community
stakeholders - Increase PYDC’s sustainability by training PYDC staff and volunteers
The Plymouth County Drug Abuse Task Force, founded by DA Cruz and Sheriff
Joseph McDonald, dedicated grants and sponsored projects staff members to assist PYDC
in their efforts to secure this DFC grant.
“I want to commend Superintendent Maestas and PYDC for the time and effort
they put into securing this grant,” DA Cruz said. “Working in concert together with
PYDC and sharing resources, data and expertise, was precisely the sort of collaboration
we had in mind when we created the Drug Abuse Task Force. The children and parents of
the Plymouth schools community are fortunate to have PYDC advocating for them, and
will surely benefit from this comprehensive strategy against youth substance misuse.”
Plymouth Schools Superintendent Gary Maestas said, “The Plymouth Public
Schools are very excited to be the recipient of the Drug Free Communities grant. By
receiving this grant, the Plymouth Schools and our collaborative partners can further our
mission of creating sustainable health minded opportunities and programming for the
youth of Plymouth.”
PYDC, began in 2004 as a subcommittee within the Greater Plymouth
Community Health Network Area and became an independent coalition the following
year. Plymouth Superintendent Maestas recognized the need for Plymouth to develop its
own sustainable collaborative and together with the Plymouth County District Attorney,
Plymouth Police and the state legislative delegation, Maestas provided the infrastructure
to start PYDC. From 2005 to present, PYDC’s mission has been to strategically prevent
and reduce substance misuse, increase protective factors that support a healthy
community, and enhance community collaboration in Plymouth.
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