Northwest Community Cares Coalition hosts Vive18 tour 

The Vive18 national drug prevention tour, sponsored by the Northwest Community Cares Coalition, arrived to Jefferson on November 13 to show students from Nodaway, Atchison, Harrison, Worth and Gentry counties, they can have fun, make friends and feel good without using substances. Fourteen schools sent students to learn.

Vive18 was created when co-founder Jake White began hosting house parties at his college without any drugs or alcohol. Within months he attracted nationally known sponsors and hundreds of students to each event.

Now their team educates and inspires K-12 students across the nation to stay free from substances like nicotine, alcohol and marijuana. They can even choose to start their own peer-led club that hosts safe events.

According to the most recent Youth Behavior Risk Survey conducted by the MO Department of Health and Senior Services, 40 percent of high school students said they had tried an electronic vapor product. One out of five students currently smoked cigarettes or used electronic vapor products at least once in the 30 days before the survey. Students who identified as lesbian, gay or bisexual were more likely to currently use marijuana than heterosexual students, 26 versus 14.8 percent. Hispanic students were more than twice as likely to have had their first drink of alcohol, other than a few sips, before the age of 13.

“Most drug prevention programs are boring, shame-based or irrelevant for youth,” says White. “We engage students in the science of underage use so they can cope with feelings in a healthy way and protect their future.”