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PAC for Families outlines prevention work and warns of survey gaps in Meeker County
Summary
Sarah Vanderhar of PAC for Families briefed the Meeker County Board on a new five-year Communities That Care grant and local prevention work, reporting modest direct spending in Meeker County but noting that no Meeker schools participated in the group's survey this year, a gap staff say they will address with a new school liaison.
Sarah Vanderhar, executive director of PAC for Families, told the Meeker County Board on May 19 that the regional collaborative received a five-year Communities That Care grant from the state Department of Human Services and is expanding prevention work across five counties.
"Our Partnership for Success grant did come to an end and we did not receive additional funding to continue that program," Vanderhar said, noting PAC for Families retained four core programs and added the Communities That Care initiative in 2025. She told commissioners the program is intended to "build protective factors" and reduce risk for substance use and related harms.
Vanderhar provided local figures for Meeker County: PAC for Families served 19 youth and 11 families in 2025, and its discretionary fund invested $24,512 in Meeker County community organizations in the first quarter of 2026. Across the five-county region, she said the collaborative provided about $2,000,846 in federal, state and membership funding in 2025, with roughly 90% devoted to prevention activities. Vanderhar also cited a return-on-investment estimate: "every dollar that we spend returns about $7 to $18" in reduced long-term costs and improved outcomes.
A focal concern for the board was reduced school participation in student surveys. Vanderhar said that for the PAC Share survey this year, "we did not have any of our Meeker County schools" participate, and that the Minnesota Student Survey has been pulled by some districts because of local controversy over certain questions. To address the gap, PAC for Families added a school liaison position and is piloting "safe schools" meetings in Eden Valley–Watkins and ACGC districts to improve engagement.
Vanderhar also described prevention activities such as safe-storage initiatives for cannabis and prescription medications and professional-development spending (about $126,000 regionwide). She said the collaborative will work with school social workers and administrators through a new School Learning Network to align programs with recent statute changes on substance-use and mental-health education.
Board members thanked Vanderhar for the update and discussed next steps for improving school participation and collecting locally useful data. Vanderhar said PAC for Families is tailoring the PAC Share survey and conducting regional presentations this spring to show schools how the data are used and to encourage future participation.
The board did not take formal action on the presentation; PAC for Families materials and the regional survey snapshots were provided to commissioners for follow-up.
