Politics & Government

Melrose Beats Long Odds To Secure $625K Anti-Drug Grant Renewal

The renewal of the Drug Free Communities grant will fund the work of the Melrose Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition for another five years.

Melrose officials announced last week that the city's anti-drug grant has been renewed for another five years at a total of $625,000—a renewal they weren't expecting due to budget cuts at the federal level.

The current Drug Free Communities grant is scheduled to run out at the end of this month. That grant had been used to pay the salary of the Coalition director—currently Jennifer Kelly—and fund the Coalition's various programs.

Due to cuts in the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) budget, which pays for the grant, the city .

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"We were going to continue the job, but the fact was the odds of us getting this grant—we planned as though we weren't going to get it," Mayor Rob Dolan said at a press conference last week. "We all know we have drug and alcohol issues here. Now we have money to fund a substantive program with a top professional to deliver it."

In July, Melrose Police responded to and police confirmed one fatality. In March, there were . During his State of the City address in January, , especially among the city's youth, as a foremost concern.

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The new grant takes effect on Sept. 30 and can only be renewed for the next five years. Melrose Health Director Ruth Clay said "the credit for getting this grant is not me." Clay credited the work of Kelly, who came on board just as they were writing the grant, and Coalition members Janet Nevin and Maureen Buxby, the latter of whom served as the program's interim coordinator between previous coordinator Kara Showers and Kelly.

Kelly credited Showers' work with the coalition during the first five years of the grant as setting the stage for this renewal.

"Without her amazing abilities to run such a successful a coalition, we would not have been able to get the continuation grant," she said.

'Kids leading kids in this fight'

Clay said the renewal process was somewhat of a paradox, as they had to show that the Coalition effectively used the grant over its first five years, but not so effectively that the city didn't still have more work to do, while laying out a plan for the next five years.

"As the mayor said, he had already committed to funding Jen’s position whether we got the grant or not," she said. "However, there was no expense money attached to that for programming."

With funding now available for programming, the Coalition plans to send Melrose kids—who already know what's going on at Melrose High School or Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School, Clay noted—to other parts of the country and meet with other kids, and to learn about substance abuse on a more global and scientific level.

"It's really empowering the kids, because ultimately what’s been shown to be the most effective is the kids leading the kids in this fight," she said.

Kelly said having the kids develop social media strategies is also in the Coalition's plans for the immediate future.

"This grant is really about environmental strategies to make population-based changes," she said. "Really focusing it on the youth so they're the initial change agents."

"And the community," Clay added, "so the norm isn’t having a party at your house because 'at least the kids are at home and I know they’re safe.' Changing those kinds of social norms to make it not acceptable to be having a party in your home and serving underage kids, or going to your house in New Hampshire for the weekend and leaving your high school kids at home."


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