Near the start of the Newtown Prevention Council’s first meeting of the new school year, held on Thursday, September 18, Co-Chair Judy Blanchard announced, “We’re moving ahead on some new ground, and we’re going to need everybody on board.”

In January, Ms Blanchard said First Selectman Pat Llodra proposed that the Newtown Prevention Council (NPC) would have a role in the town’s resiliency efforts moving forward.

“We’ve come a long way since then,” said Ms Blanchard.

When the town was wondering how to structure a program that would help the community face the “horrible harm that was done to us and grow to develop those skills of recovery and also resiliency,” Mrs Llodra said, the Newtown Prevention Council, with members that come from many areas of the community, came to mind.

Mrs Llodra said NPC was included when filing for a Department of Justice grant to help develop a program strand that will directly connect with building skills for resiliency.

The grant, according to Ms Blanchard, has four components for NPC to fulfill. The first is youth mental health for state training for trainers.

“We have slots for seven people,” said Ms Blanchard, who later said that the seven will train to give ongoing support to the Newtown community. “This is a huge piece of providing support for our community,” she said.

The other components of the grant the council will need to fulfill, according to Ms Blanchard, move toward creating a resilient community. Determining what resiliency means and looks like for the community, Ms Blanchard said, is the first step.

The next meeting of the council, set for November 20, will also include a convocation, according to Ms Blanchard, and it will focus on “the understanding of what resiliency is for us, what does it look like, and what can we do.”

This is also the final year for the Drug Free Communities Grant, which has funded initiatives for NPC over the last decade. Some initiatives the grant is covering this year are Newtown High School’s Link Crew program, a resource corner at C.H. Booth Library, Teen Center improvements, and Newtown Police Department’s Explorers program.

For the past two years, Ms Blanchard said NPC members have been working with their community partners to make sure that the successful programs will not discontinue once the Drug Free Communities Grant runs out.

Ms Blanchard said funding this year will focus on three major initiatives: alcohol use, marijuana use, and prescription drug use.

“The data we have to show whether we are successful [shows there] is a reduction in those areas as well as attitude,” said Ms Blanchard. “2015 is the year for us to do our student drug and alcohol survey … which is in April. We do that every other year.”

The results are analyzed to determine future problems that may be coming. The survey is another initiative that has been funded by the Drug Free Communities Grant.

Newtown Prevention Co-Chair and Newtown Police Department Chief Michael Kehoe also said that he recently learned further information about the state’s medical marijuana dispensaries. One aspect that he said made him feel better about the dispensaries is that all of the marijuana sold will be sold in childproof containers.

Mrs Llodra said she has also voiced concern about “the accelerated incidence of heroin” when she speaks with other selectman.

Chief Kehoe said crises intervention calls and overdoses related to heroin have gone up. Federal and state efforts are working to reduce the use of heroin, according to Chief Kehoe, who asked people to “be alert.”

Superintendent of Schools Joseph V. Erardi, Jr, and Chief Kehoe both spoke about the possibility of users moving from prescription drug abuse to heroin use.

“We haven’t had a lot of conversation around it in Newtown,” said Mrs Llodra, “but I know it is being talked about in all the towns around us. We’re not going to escape the problem. So let’s be prepared.”

Reminding everyone about the Newtown Police Department’s Drug Take-Back program, Chief Kehoe also urged everyone to share the message of clearing out medicine cabinets.

“Whether or not you feel as though anybody in your family is at risk, you just never know,” said Chief Kehoe. “I would encourage you if you don’t need [prescription drugs] ... just bring them down to the [police department] and get rid of them in a safe manner.”

While a concentrated drug take-back event was scheduled for September 27 at Newtown Police Department, and also at the Connecticut State Police Troop A Barracks in Southbury — a four-hour event with the US DEA sponsoring a national collection — residents can drop off unwanted and unused prescription drugs at 3 Main Street at any time. The Newtown police station lobby has a secure receptacle where the public can dispose of unwanted prescription drugs seven days a week, 24 hours a day.

“I just want to reinforce,” Ms Blanchard said, speaking again about the Drug Free Communities Grant, “that this grant is ending but our efforts are not. Our goals and our mission are not.

“We have been here since 1986 … and we will be here to continue well beyond the funding that is drug specific to us,” she added. “A really big thank you to all of you that support the work that we do.”