Substance Use Prevention Coalition looks forward to new initiatives
[February 13, 2026]
The Substance Use Prevention Coalition met at Lincoln Memorial
Hospital to share recent updates and plan upcoming events. The mission
of the SUPC is to promote awareness of substance use disorder, prevent
youth substance use, and improve access to resources.
The BRIDGE Deflection program is a new initiative in Lincoln that is
generating excitement locally and has an official kick-off and training
on February 24 from 12:30 to 4 p.m. at the Lincoln Park District. BRIDGE
stands for Building Recovery Inclusion in Dignity for Growth and
Empowerment and the goal of BRIDGE is to enhance accessibility to
tailored services for underserved individuals needing support with
substance use, mental health, and housing support in Logan, Mason, and
Menard Counties. BRIDGE serves people who are experiencing mental health
conditions including substance use.
Law enforcement from Menard County recently conducted a successful
BRIDGE Deflection meeting with representatives from Logan, Mason, and
Menard Counties. SUPC talked about potential space for an office based
in Lincoln, in addition to the Springfield office. A participant
graduated from Drug Court in Lincoln the first week of February as part
of the deflection initiative.
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Discussion ensued about bringing Tall Cop to Lincoln in 2027. Tall
Cop provides dynamic and localized training to invested adults to
prevent substance use in minors. Kara Davis, director of nursing at
Logan County Department of Public Health, has emailed all school
superintendents in Logan County inquiring about possible dates in
August of 2027 for a time when teachers could attend the training as
part of school improvement or continuing education credits. The
training would be free for anyone in the community. Discussion
continued about when to schedule and how to fund the cost of this
popular training. The projected cost is $12,600 for two days of
training. Various prevention entities plan to pool resources and
SUPC members will research grants.
The state SUPC is encouraging member groups to
provide prevention education for 4th and 5th graders as students are
already vaping in 6th grade. Prevention Specialist Grace Irvin of
Chestnut Health Systems has begun reaching out to area grade
schools. The curriculum “Too Good for Drugs” is already being taught
at Lincoln Junior High School.
SUPC members continued to work on assigning key informant interviews
to collect up-to-date information about youth in Logan County and
the issues and pressures that students encounter.
The next ROSC meeting is February 26 at Hope on Fifth with a Zoom
option. The next SUPC meeting is March 12 at LMH from 9 to 10 a.m.
with a Zoom option. The next Community Health Collaborative meeting
is March 5 at LMH from 8:30 to 10 a.m. in-person only.
[Stephanie Hall] |
