The White House gave out 150 grants that would help with drug-free community support programs, and the SRSLY Stockbridge team earned one of them.

The grant gives the SRSLY team $125,000 per year for the next 5 years.

To spend funds, the team plans to attend events and learn more about youth substance use.

“Our goal is to make Stockbridge a safe and drug-free community for our youth,” SRSLY Stockbridge director Emily Stewart said in a recent press release.

Specific goals for the coming year are to expand membership and to learn more about the effects of vaping, marijuana, and drug use.

The team went to Dallas, Texas to attend a national event along with other SRSLY programs across the country to learn and explore what other students do in their programs and maybe use some of their ideas.

Over time, the SRSLY group’s impacts have shown results.

According to the Michigan Profile for Healthy Youth (MiPHY) survey, from 2010 to 2018, students at Stockbridge High School report “lifetime alcohol use is down by 6%, past 30-day (recent) alcohol use is down by 12%, and binge drinking is down by 38%.”

To plan for the future, at the Dallas anti-drug conference, the student team identified the need to help the local SRSLY program reduce vaping use.

While in Dallas, the group attended an event sponsored by CADCA, the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America, with the goal of obtaining information to help out the community.

“Fellow SRSLY members who attended this year were able to come up with a plan that we brought back to the community and we’re hoping to implement soon,” sophomore member Brenden Yannella said.

Education of substances ranked high on the list during the event and will be a push for the local group.

“The biggest thing that I learned was that even if a vaping products says it’s nicotine free, it still most likely contains nicotine,” Yannella added.