Troy Community Coalition steps up efforts as spring arrives

TROY — The Troy Community Coalition is back offering in-person events to help combat substance abuse among local youth and is reminding families that it has a variety of programs in place to serve Troy area residents.

Nancy Morrison, the executive director of the Troy Community Coalition, said that they are working in several ways to educate and prepare families for the challenges related to alcohol, tobacco and drug use in teens.

“We utilize those in recovery to speak to students in Troy’s (public high schools). We address issues like fentanyl, vaping and alcohol as part of our prevention programs. In our addiction awareness program, we are invited into the high school’s health classes to talk about these issues. We also have the Choose Wisely program for fourth graders in the Troy School District grade schools,” she said. “We have our Tar Wars anti-tobacco program, too, which we do along with Corewell Health in the elementary schools in the fifth grade classes.”

The coalition will be hosting its first in-person event since the COVID-19 pandemic to educate parents and caregivers about the dangers and risks of marijuana and vaping.

They will have a marijuana and vaping presentation at 7 p.m. April 12 at the Troy Community Coalition offices, 4420 Livernois Road.

“We’re partnering with Troy Youth Assistance and the school district on the marijuana and vaping presentation,” added Marianne Wiwel, the business coordinator for the Troy Community Coalition. “We do a lot with the school district in mind, since they are our audience for much of what we do.”

Among their other upcoming programs is a summer camp.

“Our summer camps are coming up … for third through eighth graders,” said Wiwel. “It’s a four-week camp that runs three days a week on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays July 11 through Aug. 3. We enroll about 50 kids. If they live in an area near certain areas, we do provide transportation to the camp. The camp is located at Smith Middle School. It has a variety of activities to go along with our prevention programming. We do wellness like yoga. We offer field trips to places like the aquatic center. There’s arts and crafts. There’s sports and athletics, and so forth. It’s $200 to attend the whole four-week program.”

The organization also is attempting to provide more opioid overdose reversal drug kits for residents, which can be administered to counter the effects of an opioid overdose.

“We’re working with the Alliance of Coalitions for Healthy Communities which is our umbrella coalition to try and get Narcan kits out to the community. We perform Narcan training from time to time, for those who have a loved one who might be suffering from addiction and might need that lifesaving Narcan,” Morrison explained. “We are hoping to help put more of it into the community also. We’re looking for locations and facilities that would allow us to give out this free Narcan.”

People can get updates on this program and the coalition’s other programs by signing up for its newsletter from its website, www.troy.k12.mi.us/community-links/tccoalition. Those interested also can call them at (248) 823-5088.

Now that spring has arrived, Morrison said the coalition also is once more doing its Parents Who Host program.

“We do a Parents Who Host program, which is about the social hosting laws,” she said. “It’s a reminder to parents not to serve children under the age of 21 alcohol. We send out emails and notifications. It’s the time of year to remind people about this, since prom and graduation is coming up.”

Morrison said that maintaining a strong relationship with local retailers to encourage them to sell responsibly is a key part of what they do.

“We were out this week visiting tobacco retailers and providing them with educational materials to prevent the sale of tobacco products to minors. We have established a lot of positive relationships with these retailers. … We’re visiting 54 retailers in the next few weeks.”

The coalition and its partner organizations still put local retailers to the test each year.

“Our umbrella coalition goes out in June, and they do undercover buys for alcohol and tobacco,” Wiwel said. “We don’t know who is ‘targeted’ or where they will try to make the purchases, but it is countywide. They handle that aspect, because there’s a lot of training the youth who partake in it have to go through.”

Both Morrison and Wiwel hope that by reaching out to the community they can make a positive difference in the lives of local youths.

“We are here to prevent substance abuse in our community and we are always looking at public safety, health and wellness in the community,” remarked Morrison. “We try to stress the consequences of behavior, who is affected by your behavior, and so forth.”

“We emphasize that, especially with kids, to think about who that one person is who they can trust and talk to when something arises,” Wiwel added. “We want them to think about that person now, so that when the need arises, they already have someone in mind.”