Healthy Peabody Collaborative receives city’s full support

PEABODY – It was a full house at City Hall Thursday morning with local business owners, social service centers, school leaders and political figures arriving by the numbers to show their support at the first bi-annual Call to Action meeting of the Healthy Peabody Collaborative.”It was incredible,” said Executive Director Sara Grinell. “The support from the community was tremendous.”The meeting was held to discuss the progress and future of the collaborative, whose goal is to identify and resolve what’s causing Peabody to fall well above state averages when it comes to alcohol and drug-related hospital admissions and deaths.The collaborative was first created this summer after the School Committee voted to support a $300,000 grant from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health designed to combat underage drinking and substance abuse. The grant breaks down to $100,000 each year for three years with the chance to renew for up to seven years, totaling $700,000 overall. It also comes with two requirements: the city must develop a strategic plan and change the environment by making it more difficult for youth to access drugs and alcohol.Since then, an additional $10,000 in grant money has been awarded to the city’s police department for increased enforcement efforts.Over the first 180 days, Grinell has worked alongside Peabody Police Chief Robert Champagne, Mayor Michael Bonfanti and Health Director Sharon Cameron to complete a comprehensive needs assessment, which included the collection and analysis of over 700 surveys, police archival data, compliance checks and ER admittance data provided by Lahey Clinic.Grinell stood before the School Committee Tuesday to discuss the details of the needs assessment’s last component, Youth Health Surveys, which will be taken anonymously by middle and high school students later this month. The surveys will be professionally analyzed to measure the prevalence of chronic disabilities or illnesses and risky behaviors, such as alcohol consumption, illicit drug and tobacco use, poor diet, physical activity, violence and victimization. They will also measure preventative factors such as strong family support.”These will fill in any gaps we may have,” said Grinell, who noted that results should be made available by June of this year.School Committee member Dave McGeney, who was unsure about the initiative at first, announced Tuesday night that he has come full circle.”I was one of the early skeptics of the plan,” he said. “I am now a strong advocate of this program.”Over the next 180 days, individual groups, known as Short Term Action Teams or “STATS,” will meet to work on specific goal oriented projects, such as developing the collaborative’s logo, mission and operating structure, creating media campaigns aimed at educating adults, planning and executing a social education forum for parents and students, as well as developing a Web site.”People were so committed,” said Grinell. “Seventy-five percent of them signed up for a STAT. There’s just such a commitment from the community.”More updates will be available at the second bi-annual Call to Action meeting, which has been scheduled for July.