Harlan Kirgan
The successes of the STL Proud Coalition include reducing alcohol use among 12- to 18-year-olds in the parish, Dale Fontenot, coordinator, said at a St. Landry Parish Council meeting.
There has been a 17 percent decrease in the 30-day use of alcohol among the teens and an 8 percent lifetime decrease, he said at the meeting Wednesday.
Fontenot said the funding for the three-year-old organization ends in June.
STL Proud is made up of members of the St. Landry Parish Children and Youth Services Planning Board. The 20 members include St. Landry Parish Government, Opelousas and Eunice city courts, St. Landry Parish School Board, St. Landry Parish sheriff and district attorney, St. Landry-Evangeline Sexual Assualt Center and other organizations.
Fontenot said the Board meets monthly and began after the parish was identified as one of 10 parishes that had high issues with underage drinking and prescription drug misuse and abuse.
“They came with funding that asked for strategies and interventions to address issues of underage drinking and prescription drug misuse,” he said.
“The funding for this initiative is coming to a close at the end of June, so we wanted to come to you and share some of the interventions and some the progress we have been doing. Social media is real big so that has been one of our key intervention pieces,” he said.
A major project is the BLAST — Boldly Living As Smart Teens – that brings together about 1,300 7th grade students in the parish for a program in Opelousas every year.
STL Proud also set up prescription drug drop boxes at the Eunice and Opelousas police departments in attempt to take those drugs off the street, he said.
STL Proud also offers free training for merchants who sell alcohol, he said.
The training program prompted Councilman Ken Marks to suggest the parish link the training with permits for festivals and fairs selling alcohol.
Fontenot said, “We have engaged the services of our sheriff’s office, Opelousas Police and Eunice Police throughout the last couple of years.”
More than 900 hours of enforcement activities have been conducted, he said.
“In 2018, we had 23 citations or arrests for merchants who have sold to to the underaged,” he said.
“We are trying to inform our population that we will not tolerate underage drinking,” he said.
“We feel we are making a positive difference,” Fontenot said.
On Saturday, STL Proud will hold a prescription drug take back day from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Eunice City Hall parking lot, 300 S. 2nd St.
The public is asked to turn in unused or expired prescription drugs for safe disposal.