United Services and Equity Foundation (USEF)<\/a> is launching the Fresno Youth Substance-use Prevention Coalition, an initiative focused on addressing vaping, nicotine, alcohol, cannabis, fentanyl and other substance use before young people reach a point of crisis.<\/p>\nFounded in 2021, USEF focuses on expanding opportunities, improving health and developing leadership skills among young people and families throughout the Valley.<\/p>\n
The coalition will prioritize outreach to immigrant and refugee youth and families, placing emphasis on culturally responsive prevention efforts and community engagement.<\/p>\n
The organization is also developing a research initiative, incorporating the knowledge of Stanford University experts to better understand tobacco and nicotine use among Valley households where English is not the primary language.<\/p>\n
The organization\u2019s planned survey-based research and intervention project looks to collaborate with Lisa Henriksen, Ph.D., an associate professor of medicine at the Stanford Prevention Research Center, and Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, Ph.D., founder and director of Stanford Medicine\u2019s REACH Lab.<\/p>\n
The efforts are being developed by Fresno-raised community leaders, pre-medical students and medical students aiming to address health challenges in their home communities.<\/p>\n
The coalition is expected to bring together representatives from schools, healthcare organizations, businesses, public agencies, media outlets, faith communities and youth-serving organizations.<\/p>\n
Its structure draws on a framework outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the White House, emphasizing coordinated approaches to reduce substance use.<\/p>\n
USEF officials believe the initiative could address a gap in coordinated and prevention efforts in the Central Valley, where they say comparable cross-sector coalitions are lacking.<\/p>\n
The organization is recruiting community representatives for an initial six-month formation period, with participants expected to attend monthly online meetings.<\/p>\n
Through the coalition and its planned research partnerships, USEF aims to develop prevention strategies shaped by local experiences while strengthening collaboration among organizations serving Fresno-area youth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The United Services and Equity Foundation (USEF) is launching the Fresno Youth Substance-use Prevention Coalition, an initiative focused…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510113,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113,195150,196675,188259,196676,196677],"class_list":["post-510112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-fresno-nonprofits","tag-fresno-youth-prevention","tag-stanford-medicine","tag-substance-use-prevention","tag-usef"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=510112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510113"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}