About Prevention Professionals of Northern Middlesex

Prevention Professionals of Northern Middlesex

Prevention Professionals of Northern Middlesex is an educational website run by the Prevention Professionals of Northern Middlesex. The Prevention Professionals of Northern Middlesex is a coalition of dedicated prevention professionals from eight communities in the Northern Middlesex, MA Region. Communities include Billerica, Chelmsford, Dracut, Lowell, Tewksbury, Tyngsborough, Westford, and Wilmington concentrating on substance use prevention and harm reduction initiatives. The coalition has been around since 2008, and formerly rebranded from the Greater Lowell MOAPC/Tewksbury SAPC Coalition to the Prevention Professionals of Northern Middlesex in 2020. The coalition is made up of professionals from police, public health, EMS, community health, mental health departments that work directly in the community. The Prevention Professionals of Northern Middlesex work to meet the immediate substances use prevention needs of the eight individual communities, while pooling efforts and knowledge to enhance prevention efforts for Greater Lowell as a whole.

Read below to learn more about what our coalition has been up to!

Newsletter

Check out our most recent newsletters to learn more about local prevention work, upcoming events, evidenced-based practices, virtual learning opportunities, and so much more!

Virtual Learning

Virtual learning opportunities are here! The Prevention Professionals of Northern Middlesex are working to safely provide educational content during the COVID-19 pandemic. Check out our virtual learning library and keep an eye out for new videos and podcasts.

Our Social Media

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MassCALL3-Greater Lowell (Mc3-GL)

The mission of MC3-GL is to prevent misuse of substances of first use, such as alcohol, nictoine, and cannabis, among youth in each community within the collaborative. MC3-GL communities include Tewksbury (lead), Billerica, Chelmsford, Dracut, Tyngsborough, Westford, and Wilmington.

MC3-GL has assessed consumption patterns and trends within the youth population based on the following core-measures:

• Current (past 30-day) use of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and any other substances that are the focus of prevention intervention projects;
• Perception of risk of harm surrounding use;
• Perceived peer disapproval of use;
• Perceived parental/caregiver disapproval.

Substance Abuse Prevention Collaborative (SAPC)

The mission of SAPC is to prevent underage drinking and other drug use in our youth. Our concentration is on universal prevention through the implementation and/or amendment of local policies, practices, systems, and environmental change. By addressing the issue of underage drinking, we will reduce the risk that youth will go on to use opioids and/or other substances.

Within these unique initiatives, clusters of communities join together to share resources and coordinate activities to address opioid misuse and its related consequences as well as underage drinking.

The Tewksbury SAPC Coalition is led by the Town of Tewksbury and includes the towns of Billerica, Chelmsford, Dracut, Lowell, Tewksbury, Tyngsborough, Westford, and Wilmington. You can learn more about SAPC through it’s overview and grant intent document – click HERE.

Massachusetts Opioid Abuse Prevention Collaborative (MOAPC)

The mission of MOAPC is to implement local policy, practice, systems, and environmental change to prevent the use/abuse of opioids; and prevent and reduce opioid overdoses, both fatal and non-fatal, and increase both the number and the capacity of municipalities across the Commonwealth addressing these issues.

The Greater Lowell MOAPC Coalition is led by the City of Lowell and includes the towns of Billerica, Chelmsford, Dracut, Lowell, Tewksbury, Westford, and Wilmington.

As a coalition of towns, programs, and organizations, MOAPC has:

• In conjunction with SAPC, introduced Evidenced-Based Prevention Programming across eight towns. These efforts have included facilitation of trainings for teachers, counselors, administrators, School Resources Officers in public schools, religious education leaders, after school programs, and summer camp leaders;
• Provided financial support for materials and training hours for Evidenced-Based Prevention Programming;
• Facilitated coordination of existing treatment agencies across the Greater Lowell area;
• Provided leadership in the planning and development of the Merrimack Valley Substance Use Disorder Symposium. In 2018, the Symposium brought together over three hundred representatives from the substance use treatment and prevention fields;
• With the Lowell Police Department, facilitated quarterly Unwanted Medication and Sharps Disposal Day events (amounting to over 400 lbs of unwanted medications being safely removed from the community between 2018 and 2019);
• As individuals or as a group, provided substance misuse awareness and education within each of the seven MOAPC coalition towns;
• Continual support for ongoing trainings and education opportunities for MOAPC coalition members. This enables the coalition to remain apprised of the latest and most effective methods of intervention as well as developing trends in the field.