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Fairfield prevention coalition seeks opioid‑settlement funds after citing steep declines in student opioid use
Summary
The Fairfield Prevention Coalition presented its school‑based prevention work and asked the council to consider directing opioid‑settlement dollars or establishing an endowment to sustain programs that coalition leaders say helped reduce student non‑prescribed opioid use from 6.7% (2019) to 1.4% (2023).
Joe Markowitz, executive director of the Fairfield Prevention Coalition, told the City Council on Sept. 8 that the coalition’s peer‑led, evidence‑based programs aim to prevent opioid onset among middle and high school students and that survey data shows large declines in non‑prescribed opioid use among Fairfield students.
Markowitz said the coalition runs multiple school coalitions — a high‑school coalition, freshman and middle‑school groups — and that roughly 140 students across four schools participate in prevention activities. He cited regional survey data showing the number of students admitting to using an opioid without a prescription fell from 209 in 2019 to 16 in 2023, and the percent of high‑school seniors using a legal pain prescription without a doctor’s permission declined from 6.7% in 2019 to 1.4% in 2023.
Markowitz described the coalition’s funding mix: two part‑time staff and many volunteers; operational funding comes through Fairfield City Schools (the coalition’s fiscal agent), a federal CARE grant that is in its final year, $10,000 annual contributions from Fairfield Township in recent years, modest United Way and private foundation support, and some Butler County assistance. He said the coalition needs more stable capital to continue operations and requested that council consider allocating opioid‑settlement dollars or help create an endowment to produce sustainable annual support.
Council members asked for a written funding strategy; Markowitz agreed to provide a plan showing how settlement dollars would be used and flagged the coalition’s long record of audits and reporting. Council and the mayor expressed appreciation for the coalition’s youth leaders; three student coalition members (Charlie Toulouse, Rohan Chuan and Sofia Gorczyk) spoke briefly about personal development and outreach efforts.
Markowitz said the coalition uses an evidence‑based program called PHARMeffects and measures outcomes using the regional prevention survey; he emphasized prevention as distinct from treatment and asked the council to consider supporting prevention funding in perpetuity through a community endowment. He noted the coalition previously secured $10,000 from Fairfield Township in back‑to‑back years and smaller gifts from United Way and local foundations but said the operational budget exceeds those sums.
