The Valley Substance Abuse Action Council (VSAAC) is expanding its reach, and its prevention programs, to the Greater New Haven area — thanks to a dissolution and reorganization of the South Central Connecticut Regional Action Council (SCCRAC) that gives VSAAC oversight of prevention efforts in New Haven, West Haven, Orange, Milford, Bethany, and Woodbridge.
VSAAC will continue to provide services to the towns of Ansonia, Derby, Oxford, Seymour, and Shelton and provide oversight to the Local Prevention Councils (LPCs) serving the Valley towns.
“We are very excited by the expansion of our service area and the opportunity to bring quality, effective prevention initiatives to these new communities,” said Pamela Mautte, Director of VSAAC. “The reorganization will open up tremendous opportunities to collaborate and pool our resources with prevention experts in the Greater New Haven area to provide an even greater range of programming for both the Valley and Greater New Haven communities.”
VSAAC’s first initiative regarding the new service towns will be to shore up the area’s existing LPCs and establish new ones where there is currently a void.
Whereas the state’s Regional Action Councils (RACs), like VSAAC, provide coordination and oversight of each region’s substance abuse prevention programs, LPCs are direct service providers of those programs for each town.
In the Valley, the Seymour-Oxford LPC, Derby LPC, Ansonia Drop Out Drug Free Council, and Shelton’s Community Alert Program (which is part of the Shelton Youth Service Bureau) are designated LPCs and work hand in hand with VSAAC to provide prevention programs that target and address community needs.
“We’ve been extremely lucky in the Valley to have such well-established and active LPCs as our partners in the battle against substance abuse in our community,” said Mautte, “We’re hoping to replicate that success in our new service area and provide the support needed in each of the six towns.”
To help educate both the Valley and the Greater New Haven communities about the restructuring, and provide the most up to date information about new and ongoing substance abuse prevention and education programs available for all of its towns, VSAAC plans to develop a variety of media, including a new interactive website.
“With so many towns under us, it will be critical to keep citizens informed and ensure that they have a central and streamlined place to obtain information and resources for their specific communities,” said Mautte.
The Valley Substance Abuse Action Council is a program of Birmingham Group Health Services, Inc. (BGHS).
For more information about BGHS, call 203 – 736-2601, or visit www.bghealth.org. For more information about VSAAC, call 203 – 736-8566, or visit www.vsaac.org.
