Success: Youth Drug prevention in Cambria County, PA
Client: Cambria County Drug Coalition, Pennsylvania
Project Name: Cambria County Drug Coalition Drug Free Communities Project
Description: In 2018, Sustainable Strategies DC helped the Cambria County Drug Coalition to secure $125,000 annually over five years through the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services and White House Office of National Drug Control Policy's Drug-Free Communities Program. The Coalition will use awarded funds to help prevent drug use and alcohol abuse among the county's youth. The grant is the largest that Cambria County Drug Coalition has ever received.
Funding Awarded:
SAMHSA Drug Free Communities Grant - $625,000 (2018)
Success: Combating the opioid Epidemic in Huntington, Wv
Client: Huntington, West Virginia
Project Name: Tackling Compassion Fatigue among First Responders
Description: The rise of compassion fatigue on the frontlines of the opioid epidemic has exposed a deficiency in mental health resources for first responders who work with trauma victims daily. Huntington, a city that has faced major opioid challenges, is addressing compassion fatigue by engaging first responders to develop self-care, training and mental health resources for overcoming empathy depletion that impacts personal, professional and community well-being. In 2017, Sustainable Strategies DC helped Huntington to secure $100,000 in Bloomberg Mayors Challenge Champion City funding to test the effectiveness of embedding a mental health care professional on-site and delivering a first responder wellness program to address compassion fatigue. In 2018, Sustainable Strategies DC helped Huntington to secure $1 million as a Mayors Challenge Winner to scale up and implement the pilot program for first responder mental health and wellness, which strengthens the ecosystem of support needed to fight the opioid crisis.
Funding Awarded:
- Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge Champion City - $100,000 (2017)
- Bloomberg Philanthropies Mayors Challenge Winner - $1 million (2018)
Success: Health & Wellness District in Stamford, CT
Client: Charter Oak Communities (Stamford's Public Housing Authority)
Project Name: Vita Health & Wellness District
Description: In 2013, Sustainable Strategies DC helped Charter Oak Communities to secure technical assistance from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This assistance helped Charter Oak Communities to convene cross-sector stakeholders to develop a multifaceted plan designed to revitalize Stamford’s distressed West Side community and to begin improving the health of its residents. This assistance led to the successful launch of the Vita Health and Wellness District in the neighborhood surrounding Stamford Hospital. Since then, Sustainable Strategies DC has helped Charter Oak Communities and its partners to secure funding from a variety of agencies and foundations to support efforts to address the environmental factors that impact health.
Funding Awarded:
EPA Office of Sustainable Communities technical assistance (2013)
- RWJF Roadmaps to Health Action - $25,000 (2016)
- USDA Farmers Market Promotion Program - $149,455 (2017)
COMMUNITY HEALTH & SUBSTANCE ABUSE PREVENTION
The health of a community, including access to medical care and community resources available to encourage healthy lifestyles, is critical to maintaining a vibrant labor force, strong community ties and quality of life. Working at the community level to endorse healthy living and address the environmental factors that lead to chronic diseases and infections provides advantages to maximize outcomes for individuals in need and reduces disparities linked to location, race and socio-economic status. In addition to high levels of obesity and chronic disease, the United States currently faces an opioid epidemic that directly and indirectly affects large segments of the population with major impacts on individuals, families and entire communities. These impacts are cumulative, significantly contributing to costly social, physical, mental, and public health problems such as crime, child abuse, motor vehicle crashes, and rates of sexually transmitted diseases. Sustainable Strategies DC works with communities across the county to provide multi-disciplinary approaches to improving community health and preventing substance abuse such as: