Harvey County D-FY (DruG-Free Youth) Coalition

Today the DFY coalition has over 100 members to help carry out their strategic action plan across community spacesincluding schools, businesses, faith-based organizationshealthcare and law enforcement sectors, and of courselocal youth organizations. STAND has maintained youth engagement through the pandemic with 100 youth involved and thousands of community impacts this year. It has been a joy to see that growth and ownership of the work that is being done to help youth. 

Mission

Harvey County D-FY (Drug-Free Youth) Coalition is committed to growing a healthy community through the reduction of the use of alcohol and other drugs by our youth. 

Catchment

Harvey County (Burrton, Halstead, Hesston, Newton, and Sedgwick) and STAND Youth in Peabody.

What they're most proud of

They are most proud that a community like ours with some real challenges is tackling this issue together. The engagement of the sectors is tremendous.  

Our schools are implementing evidence-based programs, innovative new promising practices, and including us in their strategic planning sessions.  

Law enforcement is hosting a training for the county SRO’s on “Keepin it Real”.  

A local coffee shop owner is implementing evidence-based practices into her after school program for 5th and 6th grade students.  She is also providing a weekly community meal with the help of our faith sector.   DFY provides Table Talks tents for parents to talk to their kids about a variety of issues related to youth health, during those meal nights. STAND presented to the after-school group on the dangers of vaping after volunteers reported that the kids were talking about vaping.   

Another proud moment for us was in 2020 was when we were selected by the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) for a site visit. We were one of nine from over 700 coalitions in the nation to receive this attention due tour highly engaged youth and schools.