PreventEd

PreventEd is a community organization with a vision of a community free of alcohol and other drug addiction, misuse, and related problems. In the midst of the worst drug epidemic in the history of our country, PreventEd is actively working to reduce or prevent the harms associated with alcohol and other drug use through education, intervention, and advocacy.
We provide an array of programs from prevention education and early intervention, to youth leadership trainings and public awareness campaigns. We know that this is a comprehensive, multi-faceted issue, and that one solution won't fix it. We are working with many different parts of our community to combat this problem and best equip our children, friends, neighbors, and other community members with the most effective tools to live a healthy, drug-free life.

preventEd works from all angles to tackle this issue, including:
-Emphasize protective factors like family support, positive role models and peer influence, emotional and relationship development, integrity, honesty, decision making, and self-esteem.
-Guide middle and high school students through youth leadership trainings, to teach them how to be positive influencers for their peers.
-Encourage families to "Talk About It" with their kids, effectively opening the dialogue around substance use between caregivers and their kids and cutting substance misuse in half.
-Provide a safe place for adolescents to work with peers and counselors to alter unhealthy behavior patterns.

PreventEd has been providing resources to help our community since 1965, and has been the authority on prevention education in the area since 1980.
PreventEd is the state Prevention Resource Center for the Eastern region of Missouri. We provide community-based prevention education, run town hall meetings, support many community coalitions, and offer professional trainings.
We reach over 100,000 people every year, and last year we provided prevention education to 64,000 K-12 students across our seven-county area, and over 80% of our budget goes into prevention education.
We are a 2018 BBB Torch Award recipient for outstanding service and high accountability, a United Way organization, one of the two 2018 Community Prevention Award Recipients from the DEA’s National Headquarters, a key partner in the Missouri Opioid-Heroin Overdose Prevention and Education Project, and for the past six years, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has named PreventEd a regional "Top Workplace" among small firms.

Last year, PreventEd provided:
-359 adult substance use assessments, 189 adolescent assessments, and answered 1,094 helpline calls.
-138 adolescents with early intervention through the GuidEd Program.
-64,000 K-12 students with evidence-informed, research-based prevention education.
-10,812 community members with training and technical guidance focused on drug and alcohol prevention.
-7,833 people with heroin/opioid education presentations, and 36.5 million with virtual heroin/opioid information and education.
-5,684 Narcan doses to prevent overdose deaths in our community.

Everything our community and PreventEd have done is a huge step in the right direction. We're making progress, but it isn't yet enough. We'll keep working to expand our reach, boost awareness, diversify programs offered, and increase our impact.