FAIRFIELD, Ohio — Nearly 100 middle school students participated in a crucial lesson on substance use Friday, with instruction and mentorship provided by high school seniors from the Fairfield Prevention Coalition.
The goal of the summit is to raise awareness among younger students about the dangers of substance use. Through leadership development training, the hope is students return to their middle schools and help others make healthy lifestyle decisions.
Julia Schuster, a Fairfield High School senior and member of the coalition, emphasized the importance of educating younger peers about safe medication practices.
“We want those kids to know that, that is a thing that must be prescribed by a doctor and that they should be making those safe decisions,” she said.
Hear more from the high school students in the video below:
Fellow seniors Charis Malamisuros and Rojita Rai assisted in facilitating the event alongside Schuster and a half dozen others.
“It's the credibility that we have as high schoolers. We're actually being those positive influences for those kids,” Schuster said.
The Fairfield Youth Coalition is unique, said Executive Director Joe Markiewicz. It’s the only coalition of its kind in the country that begins recruiting as young as fifth and sixth grade. Early educational opportunities like the one held on Friday not only provide information but also serve as a recruitment tool for the coalition for future years.
“When (the current Middle School students) become juniors and seniors, they can go back into the middle schools and do prevention in the school they grew up in,” Markiewicz said.
This isn’t a typical summit on drugs. There are no scare tactics, no addicts, no hyperbole — just factual information. The coalition said it is one of the only universal prevention frameworks in the country, meaning it proactively addresses opioid misuse before someone gets addicted to legal pain medication.
“Everything we do is evidence-based, and we show them statistics,” Rojita said.
At the end of the day, the two attending Middle Schools competed in a game of trivia.
“We put an emphasis on the connectedness between getting involved in your community and having these outlets of things that make you both happy and just occupy your time,” Charis said.
RELATED | Watch the Fairfield Prevention Coalition’s ‘You Make a Difference’ assembly:
Scott Clark, president of the Fairfield Prevention Coalition, said ongoing education is important to turning lessons into a lifestyle.
“They hear that same message in sixth, seventh, eighth grade … it becomes more muscle memory in their conversation,” Clark said, adding more and more students have become involved with different aspects of the coalition as time goes on.
“Kids just have to have a purpose, and I think this is a great purpose to have," he said.
