By: Kari Radjewski, director of Marketing & Communications
Amid a national epidemic – one that is hitting Michigan just as hard – the Community Health Awareness Group (CHAG) is addressing the increasing numbers of drug overdoses among young people by tapping into kids’ most impactful influence: each other.
In July 2024, the Children’s Foundation awarded CHAG a $25,000 grant, aligning with the Foundation’s Substance Use Disorder Focus Area. The grant supports CHAG’s effort to establish Project YOUR (Youth Overdose Understanding Risks), an innovative and youth-centered pilot program to minimize risk among a high-risk population.
Background: A Worsening Crisis
Overdose rates and deaths continue to be a problem among the country’s adolescent population. In 2022, in the United States, an average of 22 high school-aged young people died of overdose each week. Last year in Michigan, 865 young people under age 24 were transported to an emergency room due to an overdose.
“It’s not that the rates of illicit drug use are increasing,” said Barbara Locke, Director of Prevention Programs, CHAG. “You don’t have to be an active user to overdose. Kids are taking drugs experimentally thinking they are just having a little fun, but the drugs are laced with highly lethal fentanyl.”
Fentanyl can be found in marijuana, counterfeit oxycodone, benzodiazepines, and other prescription pills that are making their way into the hands of adolescents. At times, these drugs can be disguised as candy, making them more attractive.
Because many young people don’t perceive themselves as at-risk, the efforts to raise awareness about the dangers of drug use by educators, physicians, and mental health professionals is largely falling on deaf ears.
“Young people want to have a good time and want to have fun, but they don’t want to die, and they don’t want their friends to die,” Locke said. “So, we had to ask ourselves: what can we do to work with them in order to address those issues?”
CHAG’s response is to use a peer-to-peer approach to reduce harm.
Project YOUR: Youth-Led Harm Reduction
Project YOUR (Youth Overdose Understanding Risks) is a pilot program that directly involves young people in the fight against drug misuse. The effort will be participatory, community-driven, and will equip youth with the knowledge and tools necessary to prevent overdose.
“To ensure success, we are including those young people who are affected by drug use and overdose risk in the thought, work, and execution of Project YOUR,” said LaShawn Reece, Program Coordinator at CHAG. “We have already engaged youth through surveys and focus groups, which have helped guide our steps to recruiting youth ambassadors.”
The project’s goals include:
- Youth Ambassadors: Young people who have been impacted by substance misuse and overdose will play an integral role in shaping the program, ensuring it resonates with their peers and addresses their needs. To start, approximately 15 teens ages 14 to 18 in Detroit and Wayne County will be trained to educate their peers on the risks of opioid use, overdose prevention, and how to administer naloxone, a life-saving overdose reversal drug.
- Risk Awareness: Increasing awareness among youth about the dangers of recreational drug use and the realities of opioid misuse.
- Collaboration: Partnering with youth-serving organizations to extend the program’s reach and effectiveness.
CHAG will provide transportation for Youth Ambassadors to attend education trainings over the course of six weeks; they will also provide mental health support for the group as they navigate difficult content, challenging conversations, and triggering experiences.
A Broader Impact & Future Expansion
By placing youth at the center of the solution, Project YOUR seeks to break the cycle of substance misuse and overdose that is severely affecting our young population. Through education, empowerment, and community collaboration, CHAG is taking crucial steps to reverse the overdose trends and build a safer future for the next generation.
CHAG has plans to seek future funding and envisions expanding Project YOUR across the entire Detroit metro area, creating a replicable model that any community can adopt to reduce overdose and overdose-related deaths.
This initiative represents a hopeful step forward in tackling one of this generation’s most pressing challenges.
