Healthy Missoula Youth is a group led by Missoula Public Health, along with many community partners. Together, we work to protect young people from the harms of substance use.
Our goal is to lower the rates of alcohol, marijuana, tobacco, and other harmful substance use among youth. We want a vibrant community where both individuals and families receive community support and are able to make healthy choices around substances. By working together and using effective methods, we create safe and positive environments for local youth, helping them make informed decisions and lead successful lives.
What we do:
- Strengthen community collaboration: Preventing the harms related to substance use disorder (SUD) is complex, requiring collaborative work among local organizations, schools, neighborhoods, and leaders. Our coalition works with multiple agencies and individuals to address factors that increase the risk of early substance use, and support interventions that promote positive youth development.
- Outreach and education: Coalition members provide education related to youth substance use prevention for local school personnel, parents, youth and local leaders. Presentations and outreach include the potential harms related to early use of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and other drugs, as well as what we can do to help prevent those harms
- Change local conditions: Early substance use is NOT inevitable. There are a variety of conditions in any community that either make youth more or less likely to use substances. Our coalition promotes local policies, laws, and norms in our community that are proven to reduce rates of youth use.
Projects & Resources
CannWeChat
The CannWeChat initiative is a project of the Healthy Missoula Youth Coalition. It is a public health media campaign designed to increase the number of parents and caregivers in Missoula County who talk with their children about the potential risks of underage marijuana use on a regular basis.
Addressing Substance Use Prevention in School
In 2023, members of Healthy Missoula Youth developed a toolkit that schools in Missoula County could use to help prevent substance use among their students. This toolkit provides a general overview of prevention practices identified by the Healthy Missoula Youth Coalition. Teachers and school staff can use this information as a guide to implement a strong prevention approach that supports Missoula youth.
The toolkit includes information on:
- Best practices for substance use prevention
- Evidence-based curriculum and programming
- Teacher resources
- School policies and interventions
- Youth-led programs
- Parent resources
The toolkit was created by Jacqueline Kline, Tara Weaselhead, Reagan Mecham, Josie Hayes-Johnson, Jourdyn Browning, Leah Fitch-Brody with help from Missoula County teachers.
Cannabis & Missoula Youth Environmental Scan
In the fall of 2022, the Policy and Law Committee decided to undertake an “environmental scan” or deep dive into the cannabis landscape in Missoula and its impacts on youth. Neighboring states have experienced shifts in patterns of youth use, social norms, hospitalizations, and more after legalizing cannabis for adult use, and we wanted to understand what was happening in our own community.
Contact us
Follow us on social media:
Partners
- All Nations Health Center
- Big Brothers, Big Sisters
- Boys and Girls Club of Missoula County
- Drive Safe Missoula
- Empower MT
- Frenchtown Community Coalition
- Friends of the Children
- Missoula County Public Schools
- Missoula Parks & Recreation
- Missoula Family YMCA
- Mountain Home Montana
- The Parenting Place
- Providence St. Patrick Hospital
- Western Montana Mental Health Center
- University of Montana Center – Curry Health Center Wellbeing
- Youth Dynamics
- Youth Homes
- YWCA Missoula
Attend a meeting
Meetings are on the third Wednesday of the month at 12 p.m. at MPH. Additionally, there are opportunities to join subcommittees that focus on you engagement, policy and law and outreach and education.