A pilot project is being launched to help communities find ways to reduce substance use among youth.

The five-year project is being done in collaboration with Planet Youth, an Icelandic research consultancy; community and health promotion partners will work together to find solutions that are unique to each community’s specific needs.

The provincial government is committing $255,000 per year to the project over five years.

Four sites have been chosen: Saint John, Woodstock, Kent County and the Acadian Peninsula.

The Planet Youth Guidance Program adapts and implements the Icelandic Prevention Model, which is an evidence- and community-based process credited with lowering substance use in Iceland over the past 20 years. Planet Youth’s Guidance Program aims to strengthen protective factors, mitigate risk factors and build healthy community environments by focusing on things such as family, peer groups, extracurricular activities and school well-being.

It also involves the building of community-led coalitions, which include practitioners, researchers, policymakers and other stakeholders concerned with the health and well-being of young people.

The project will begin this fall with the development of community action teams in each of the four pilot sites.

Access to addiction and mental health services is one of five action areas in the provincial health plan, Stabilizing Health Care: An Urgent Call to Action. This pilot project was one of the plan’s commitments. It is also a key initiative in the Department of Health’s Inter-Departmental Addiction and Mental Health Action Plan and aligns with the government’s commitment to develop long-term programs related to youth and addictions.