Downeast Partnerships for Success

Downeast Maine Partnerships for Success (2020-2025) was a five-year collaborative effort among multiple community partners and organizations throughout Washington and Hancock counties and coordinated by Healthy Acadia to prevent youth substance use. The Downeast Maine Partnerships for Success (PFS) project initiative was funded through the Department of Health & Human Services Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) that facilitates and supports community-driven, collective efforts to prevent substance use and promote the health and well-being of youth aged 9 to 20 throughout the region. 

Healthy Acadia and PFS partners implemented multiple strategies using the evidence-based Icelandic Model for Adolescent Substance Use Prevention and tailored to the needs and opportunities in rural Downeast Maine, to increase protective factors and decrease risk factors associated with youth substance use, specifically alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana.

Key objectives of the five-year project included:

  • Increasing parent/caregiver, school, and community awareness of and capacity to reduce risk factors and increase protective factors associated with youth substance use.

  • Implementing evidence-based programs, policies, and practices to increase protective factors and decrease risk factors for substance use among youth ages 9-20 years.

  • Mini-grants to Support Youth Opportunities: The collaborative effort to prevent youth substance use across Washington and Hancock counties focused on alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use prevention. Every year, we offered a limited number of mini-grant funding opportunities to community partners working with youth to support community-driven, collective efforts to prevent substance use and promote the health and well-being of youth aged 9 to 20 years throughout the region.

We were thrilled for the opportunity to support projects in Hancock and Washington counties that create positive social interactions and activities for youth in our region. In the last three years, we have awarded 45 amazing projects that reached youth and communities throughout the region during a time when support and opportunities were so needed, including the creation of after-school programs, summer camps, outdoor recreation opportunities with corresponding equipment and so much more. 

For more information about the Downeast Partnerships for Success Initiative contact Maria Donahue at maria@healthyacadia.org.

This project was supported by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) under Partnerships for Success Grant # 1H79SP081695. Learn more by visiting www.samhsa.gov or by calling 877-SAMHSA-7.