The Impact of Prevention and the Power of Youth Engagement

Alyssa Soares, MSW, Prevention Coordinator

By: Alyssa Soares, MSW-Prevention Coordinator

In Prevention we are often asked what our work with youth looks like. Do we provide direct services to youth? Do we do presentations on the importance of delaying or preventing substance use? What are we doing in the community when we are attending events and presentations? The answer is more complicated than you think.

You see, prevention is a little bit of all the above. We often find ourselves working one on one with youth, educating youth on all thing’s prevention, doing presentations in the schools, and attending community events and trainings to provide resources and bring awareness to the topics that are impacting the most vulnerable in our community. You’ll see us participating in our local task forces and coalitions, and you may even see us engaging with all different stakeholders in the community from law enforcement to faith leaders. We take an environmental approach to our work, looking at the complexities of the systems that we are involved in, and how we can address gaps to help provide better outcomes for the youth and families in our communities. 

Prevention in and of itself can be broken down into three categories that demonstrate a continuum of care for those we work with. The three different types of prevention are primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention. At SSTAR Prevention Services, the focal point of the work we do is primary prevention. Primary prevention focuses on preventing or delaying substance use in those who may not have started or for those who have experimented with substances but may not know the true consequences of their use yet. We also look at promotion in the form of upstream prevention. We are teaching and promoting positive youth development, healthy behaviors and coping mechanisms, providing access and awareness to available resources, reviewing policies, and amplifying youth voices to be able to share their concerns and become active members in their community.

So, what does this look like when it comes to youth engagement and the impacts prevention has on youth? I can speak to this myself as my career as a Prevention Coordinator started as a youth. Back in 2014 when I was 15 years old and just a sophomore at Durfee High School, I joined SSTAR Prevention Services as a Peer Leader. Through this work, I discovered that I wanted to continue in the Human Service field where I went on to get my Bachelor of Science in Social Work and later my Masters in Social Work at Bridgewater State University. I am a macro social worker at heart because of my work in prevention. It has been ten years since I started this work and I often reflect on my experiences with so much gratitude and pride. I would not be the social worker, prevention coordinator, or person I am today without SSTAR and all the opportunities I was provided. My personal mission in the role I play today is to provide those same opportunities to the youth in our community who also want to make a difference, be involved, and have their voices be heard. As the saying goes, today’s youth are our future and investing in the future is a worthwhile endeavor, especially for our Fall River community.

My work in prevention has provided me with so many full circle moments and one of those moments occurred back in September when members from the SSTAR Prevention team were asked to present to the Evolve Academy at Durfee High School. The Evolve Academy is a competency-based pathway of choice for students who want to do high school differently to reach their goals for college, career, and beyond. Last semester, they conducted research on the Opioid Epidemic, a topic we at SSTAR are all too familiar with. In collaboration with the Fall River Board of Health, SSTAR Prevention presented to the students on the topics of Prevention 101, the Science of Addiction, Opioids, and the Importance of Coping Skills. The students then used this information for their research project and hosted an exhibition in November to share their findings, which we were invited back to attend. The students were so excited that we came back to support them. Some of the students then went on to attend our BOLDER (Building Our Lives, Determined, Empowered, and Resilient) Coalition meeting in December to share their projects. The students were able to discuss their findings with community stakeholders, ask questions about what is currently being done, and offer suggestions as to how they could help bring awareness to these issues with their peers. One student from this group has even gone on to be nominated for the 2024 Youth of the Year Award for their research on this project and has attended and presented at two Youth Leadership opportunities across the state. This is what prevention is all about-building relationships, working collaboratively, and giving youth a voice, space, and platform to share their concerns and learn more about their perspectives on how WE can make change and better do our work, together.