A kaleidoscope of blue paint, freshly applied by a multitude of art students and volunteers, dried on either end of a banner spanning the width of three art tables the last day of finals, Jun. 27. The Scituate High School Arts Dept. and Health and Wellness Dept. joined in a interdisciplinary effort to paint various figures of hands, open-palmed or joining together, symbolic of the joining of the school’s volunteers for one cause. This ‘helping hand’ banner is the culmination of the hard work of dedicated community members to promote the recently formed Scituate F.A.C.T.S. Coalition (Scituate Families, Adolescents, and Communities Together against Substances Coalition).

    Launched in 2011, Scituate’s F.A.C.T.S. Coalition works at just what its name suggests: a community effort—the joining of forces of parents, school counselors and administrators, local law enforcement, and health care providers—as a measure to reduce and prevent underage drinking and substance abuse. The most important part of this According to the Scituate Public Schools’ Newsletter, part of its mission statement includes, “The Coalition seeks to create a cultural shift through the education and leadership of our community youth that substance abuse is not the norm.”

    Serving as the South Shore Coalition’s prototype, Scituate F.A.C.T.S. is one of the leaders among those of Hingham, Hull, Cohasset, and Norwell, which received the opportunity to establish their respective community organizations from S.S. Hospital’s Youth Health Connection and the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office. The ‘helping hands’ banner is one of the many projects that Scituate F.A.C.T.S. has already undertaken on the path to improving the health of the Scituate and surrounding communities.

    A Health and Wellness Dept. initiative, the AlcoholEdu program has already been instituted into health class curriculum. Pamphlets, resource sheets, and online resources such as the Scituate F.A.C.T.S. Facebook page and website, www.ScituateFACTS.org, are available for youth, parents, and all community members to better communicate over underage alcohol and drug abuse issues. After all, according to www.drugfree.org and the F.A.C.T.S. Parents’ pamphlet, teens that have these vital conversations with parents are up to 50% less likely to use substances.

    Even more important, the F.A.C.T.S. banner exemplifies the Coalition’s mission to involve all of the community in its multi-faceted efforts. “I took Ms. Benski’s Drawing and Painting 1 class last year and the students were asked to draw a picture of a hand that represented facts,” said senior Shannon Whalen, who took part in the decorating of the F.A.C.T.S. banner.

    Working with SHS’s SADD Club (Students Against Destructive Decisions), the Coalition also campaigns for SADD’s Mobilizing the Community Program and to engage youth, parents, and all community members in a Policy Task Force. Throughout its first active year, the task force grew to 40 members and convened 4 times.

     Member of F.A.C.T.S. and SHS’s SADD Club, senior Cathryn Blair said, “We (SADD club) do a lot of things to remind students to make positive and smart decisions. During big holidays like Halloween and Thanksgiving, we put up posters to remind everyone just to think before you act. We also do this before prom too! We also want to provide fun alternate activities, which is why we are helping FACTS promote 5th Quarter!  We are always going to conferences learning new ways to promote drug and alcohol awareness and we have a lot of new ideas for this year.”

     According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), about 5,000 people under the age of 21 will die each year from injuries caused by underage drinking in the U.S., and nearly 40% of those deaths are related to car crashes. Unfortunately, members of the Scituate community are a part of this statistic. Yet the growing efforts of the F.A.C.T.S. Coalition stand to show that Scituate is trending in the opposite direction. Underage drinking and drug use are not the norm. Soon, F.A.C.T.S. and SADD can be, and as Blair said, “We are always looking for new students join!”