LYNNFIELD — Local students, businesses and members of the organization A Healthy Lynnfield were excited to roll out the Above the Influence anti-substance abuse campaign — their aim is to help residents make healthier choices.
One of the goals of this campaign is to influence what people think about substance abuse in the community, which Substance Abuse Prevention Coordinator Peg Sallade said carries a variety of messages on social media.
The campaign was created as a partnership between students from the middle and high schools and the nonprofit A Healthy Lynnfield (AHL).
High School Youth Council leaders Maddie Cook, Sarah Doherty and Riley Slaney said they have seen success with the campaign and are happy to be involved in it.
Some campaign activities provided by Above The Influence included “Be It,” where participants worked on developing their own personal brands, and “Tag It,” where they went into the community and learned to recognize and identify negative influences — as well as positive ones which keep them “above the influence.”
Leanne Bordonaro, AHL’s outreach coordinator, said the campaign’s partnership with local restaurants began in March and served to kick off Above the Influence’s activities.
“The businesses that signed the pledge were promoted in the news as a responsible business who really care about protecting kids from underage alcohol sales,” Bordonaro said. “The pledge was a great opportunity to continue to build relationships in a positive way.”
Some restaurants displayed Above the Influence’s poster in their establishment, and Bordonaro said the 13 businesses that signed the pledge were very supportive.
Cook, Doherty and Slaney helped create a video listing 21 reasons to be above the influence, bringing in peers who were not previously involved.
Sallade said that Above the Influence’s overarching campaign strategy is to focus the campaign on one message that can engage different partners and people in the community in different ways, with making healthy choices being the focus for 2021.
For 2021, the group based their initiative off a national media campaign by the same name which was run several years ago, and designed different aspects to reach a broad swath of people.
This included getting local businesses involved by encouraging restaurants to sign a pledge to not serve alcohol to underage individuals.
Julie Greene, Drug Free Communities program coordinator at AHL, works with youth in the community and said this year was the first where AHL operated as an after-school, club-based program. Kids in the program participated with Above the Influence by engaging in a number of activities and projects.
“Anyone that works with youth really wants to focus on teaching and building resiliency, which I think is what this campaign really embodies,” Greene said.
