The Nicholas County Health Department is pleased to announce a primary prevention opportunity through a funding partnership with the West Virginia First Foundation to implement the Integrated Community Engagement (ICE) Collaborative, based on the Iceland Prevention Model. Like the Iceland Prevention Model, the ICE Collaborative’s central mission is to strengthen protective factors and reduce risk factors in the lives of our young people.
Drug prevention focuses less on drugs and more on how Nicholas County communities can build strong communities around youth. By partnering with local agencies, the West Virginia Prevention Research Center, and the WVU School of Public Health, we can connect researchers, providers, policy makers, and community members to strategize on how to best support youth in the domains where they operate: family, school, peers, and leisure time.
This anonymous and confidential data is gathered annually through surveys taken in the fall by students in the 7th-12th grades in Nicholas County. The data assists in securing funding for impactful, youth-centered programs and for altering the environment surrounding youth to decrease risky behaviors specific to these communities. Delaying the initiation of substance use by even a year or two has been demonstrated to decrease the likelihood of substance use disorder (addiction) later in life and increase the probability of graduating from high school.
Utilizing grassroots, data-driven approaches will continue to guide further program development and environmental change to empower Nicholas County citizens to prevent substance use disorder, high risk behaviors, thereby enhancing and saving lives.
For more information on the ICE Collaborative in Nicholas County, please contact Glisyn Mason, our Prevention Education Lead and ICE Program Coordinator at the Nicholas County Health Department, at 304-872-5329 or on our website at www.nicholashealthwv.com. To learn more about the Iceland Model, please refer to the following article:
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2017/01/teens-drugsiceland/513668/?fbclid=IwAR3mSt2gKI3EfjufYhwVJRzoI7jlz11f-QlzY55rkye-gwzpQxTld8dIw28.