Officials, members laud Healthy Peabody Collaborative

PEABODY-The first meeting of the Healthy Peabody Collaborative kicked off at City Hall Thursday with enthusiastic participants sharing their visions for a drug and alcohol-free youth.Mayor Michael Bonfanti began the morning with some encouraging words.?We can?t do it alone, but we can do it together,” he told an audience of roughly 50 attendees. “Although we can?t save the world?we can save at least one (child).”The collaborative is an effort to combat the growing drug and alcohol use among Peabody?s youth that Bonfanti believes “is robbing them of their future.”According to Massachusetts health reports, Peabody males ages 15-19 years old are hospitalized for drug and alcohol abuse at a rate 202 percent higher than the state average. Peabody females of the same age are hospitalized at a rate 427 percent higher than the state. Peabody Health Director Sharon Cameron said the alarming numbers are “not atypical for an urban community.”With the help of a $300,000 grant from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the city will work with its partners to perform a needs assessment on underage drinking through surveys, interviews, and focus groups and develop a strategic plan to change the environment and make accessing alcohol more difficult for those under age. The grant will provide the city with $100,000 each year over three years, with the ability to renew for seven years, totaling $700,000 overall.Peabody Police Chief Robert Champagne said he sees drug and alcohol use and abuse as a big problem for the city.?Almost everything (the department) sees is the result of substance abuse,” he said, adding that there just isn?t enough money, cruisers, or police officers to solve the problem alone. He sees the collaborative as an efficient way to collect important data for identifying why the problem exists in the first place and how to handle it.Although educational programming is a major aspect of the program, Cameron said environmental changes are equally important.?It?s about changing the environment to make it more difficult for (children) to access alcohol,” she said in an earlier interview, adding that the city will work to make restaurants, bars, and retailers more responsible for underage drinking. She said non-commercial access through friends, parents, and siblings is also an area of concern they wish to address.?We need to make it more of a part of our culture that it is not acceptable for kids to be drinking,” she said. “Parental attitudes around drinking are really incredibly important. Young people have cited that it?s the number one reason they don?t drink?Parents have much more of an important role than they actually realize.”Bonfanti expressed similar feelings.?The battle of underage drinking begins first and foremost with parents,” he said. Bonfanti expressed outrage over how few parents showed up to the city?s various proactive drug programs and said there?s good reason to hold some parents accountable.The next meeting for strategic planning will be held on Thursday, Aug. 14, as the city must submit a plan to the state by October, and several more are to follow as things get underway, said Cameron.