Drug, alcohol prevention education at stake

An ounce of prevention doesn’t seem to be worth as much as a pound of cure to the Allentown and Upper Freehold community.

The Upper Freehold/Allentown Alliance to Prevent Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, which formed in 1990 to address the problems of substance abuse and juvenile delinquency in the community, could cease to exist as soon as next year if fundraising and membership drive efforts fail in 2010, according to coordinator Deborah Minnick.

The municipal alliance is part of a statewide network of alliances that receives funding from the Governor’s Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse’s Drug Enforcement Demand Reduction (DEDR) grants.

“Each town must come up with a 25- percent cash match,” Minnick said. “Unfortunately, we are the only alliance in Monmouth County that does not receive its 25 percent cash match from the towns it provides services to.”

Upper Freehold Business Administrator Dianne Kelly said that although the 4 percent tax levy cap has made it impossible to contribute money toward the cash match from the municipal budget, the township does a lot to support the alliance. She said the township has paid health benefits for previous drug alliance coordinators and social security and unemployment taxes. The township also provides the alliance with an office, office supplies, postage and a copy machine.

“That’s thousands of dollars,” Kelly said. “We do contribute a great deal to that endeavor. Allentown doesn’t contribute anything at all.”

To meet the DEDR grant requirement of the $9,924 cash match each year, the alliance has a fundraising committee.

“This makes things quite difficult for us,” Minnick said.

The alliance has done quite well raising the cash match each year since it was established, except in 2009, according to Minnick. Not only did attendance drop at fundraising events because of the downturned economy, but a couple of the alliance’s outdoor fundraisers had to be canceled because of rain last year.

The alliance managed to pull together the cash match for this year’s DEDR grant with funding left from the prior year, Minnick said. However, now the alliance’s coffers are bare.

“We won’t make it in 2011 if these two towns don’t come up with the funding,” Minnick said.

If the alliance ceases to exist, a number of substance abuse prevention programs that it pays for in the schools would be canceled. There would no longer be a “Forest Friends” program that teaches first-graders in the Upper Freehold Regional Elementary School about the harm of using tobacco. The “Impact 2000” program, which educates students about drunken driving via simulation goggles, at the Upper Freehold Regional Middle School and Allentown High School would be eliminated. The high school’s Lifesavers Club would no longer receive funding from the alliance for its various drug- and alcoholfree activities. Parents and guardians of students in grades K- 12 would no longer receive the “Safe Homes” list that the alliance compiles by encouraging community members to sign a pledge not to provide drugs or alcohol in their homes or on their properties.

Not only students would be affected if the alliance becomes defunct. Local age-restricted communities and senior groups

would no longer get free prescription-drug- education programs. Community members would no longer have access to evening prevention education programs or receive the alliance’s newsletter. And no one would be able to call the alliance when in need of resources or referrals for treatment.

Having members is just as important to the alliance’s survival as having money.

“We operate with community volunteers,” Minnick said. “People have just stopped coming to our meetings.”

Members attend meetings once a month and help fundraising chair Sherry Wright organize events such as “Mother/Son Bonding Through Bowling” from 2 to 4 p.m. on Feb. 28 at Hamilton Lanes and the annual “Daddy and Daughter Dance.” Alliance Chairman Sal Diecidue and Vice Chair Sean Muto also seek members’ advice regarding the allocation of funding every year.

“The alliance needs individuals who believe in our events and programs and are committed to showing up at and participating in our meetings,” Minnick said. “Without you, the alliance cannot exist.”

The next meeting will take place at 7 p.m. March 10 in Allentown.

For more information about the alliance and its programs, visit www.ufadrugalliance. org or call Deborah Minnick at 609- 570-5376.