The fiscal 2009 House budget includes $100,000 for the Arlington Youth Health and Safety Coalition (AYHSC), three Arlington state representatives have announced. Representatives William Brownsberger, Sean Garballey and Jay Kaufman said their joint amendment was adopted May 7.

The item moves to the Senate following final House budget approval, and Senator James Marzilli says he will support it. “I included this item as one of my budget priorities in my meeting with the Senate Ways and Means Chairman in March and I will continue to advocate for funding when the budget is taken up in the Senate,”he said.

Garballey was quoted in media reports as saying, "I'm very motivated by the tragedies that befell students at the high school."

Kaufman said it is not easy to obtain a new earmark for a local program and especially difficult in a tight budget year.

Christine Connolly, town director of Health and Human Services, said the $100,000 grant will be used to fund AYHSC substance abuse prevention programs.

In 2006, Arlington established the AYHSC, which is a coalition of agencies. The coalition has two goals -- to reduce substance abuse among youth and, over time, among adults, as well as strengthen collaborations among agencies in Arlington.

The Arlington Youth Consultation Center, a key agency involved in the coalition, offers substance abuse counseling to teens and their families and also provides substance abuse prevention based programs within the elementary and middle schools.

With the funding requested, the coalition plans to increase the capacity of the counseling facility to have more wide-reaching prevention strategies across the community as well as additional direct counseling to teens and their families as well as homeless youth. Arlington has a long-standing tradition of offering mental health counseling to youth and families through the Arlington Youth Consultation Center, a Department of Public Health licensed mental health facility.

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