Washington / Baltimore HIDTA Initiatives

Prevention

The W/B HIDTA prevention initiatives are designed to prevent, identify, or mitigate substance use across the region by coordinating community and local government resources to foster protective factors, increase knowledge around substances, and link individuals to appropriate levels of care.

Initiatives focus on one or more of the following aims:

  • Strengthen youth, parent, and teacher resiliency
  • Develop social and emotional competence in youth
  • Offer concrete support, early intervention, or referral services in times of need
  • Develop healthy and supportive social connections
  • Educate on parenting and child development
  • Offer unique prevention services to W/B HIDTA high-risk communities based on community needs assessments
  • Promote drug-free values.

HIDTA funds multidisciplinary teams composed of local government agencies and community groups influential in the social development of children and welfare of its citizens to provide support, training, and resources to:

  • Build social networks
  • Mobilize citizens in problem-solving and youth development
  • Overcome social disorder and decline
  • Enhance community cohesion.

W/B HIDTA Announces Awards for 2023 Advancing Interventions to Mitigate Substances (AIMS) Grants in Washington/Baltimore HIDTA Communities

The purpose of the AIMS grant is to support integration of evidence-based substance use prevention and treatment strategies into systems of care within communities across the Washington/Baltimore HIDTA region. AIMS funding supports the following objectives:

  • Addressing identified gaps in substance use prevention or treatment systems that support direct prevention or treatment of substance use disorder
  • Expanding community-based substance use prevention strategies
  • Offering early intervention for youth and caregivers with substance abuse risk
  • Increasing access to substance use disorder treatment for the criminal justice population
  • Promoting collaboration among law enforcement, state, county, and municipal programs; and among community partners whose alliance is critical to preventing substance use, reducing recidivism rates, and supporting recovery

Three prevention-focused projects will support efforts to built protective factors, reduce risk factors, increase youth engagement, enhance resiliency, and facilitate partnership among a variety of organizations, including police departments, schools, medical centers, and community behavioral health providers. The projects will focus on: life skills and goal development, nurturing healthy relationships between youth and mentors (including law enforcement mentors), and increased awareness of how to prevent trauma and substance use.

Prevention initiatives include law enforcement partnerships participating at operational and policy-making levels. A nexus has been formed among law enforcement and other public and private sector program elements. There is an ongoing effort to expand alternative funding to enhance the prevention component of this HIDTA, primarily through grant development.

2021 HIDTA Results:

In 2021 the W/B HIDTA invested $418,471 to support prevention activities in the region.

HIDTA Prevention Initiatives:

Substance Use Prevention Resources

Resources from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy:

Resources from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration: