The Family Effect helps to support vital Prevention Services at the Phoenix Center. The goal is clear: combine education and enforcement to prevent, delay or reduce substance or alcohol abuse and its negative consequences.
Our Prevention Specialists deliver evidence-based programs and education to more than 20,000 people every year, and work to instill healthy beliefs and lifestyles in the community. We tailor programs to the needs of schools, businesses, churches, and many other groups. Our specialists work with people of all ages, and place a high priority on working with kids.
The Phoenix Center’s prevention programs use the Risk and Protective Model. We identify and reduce risk factors that make an individual or community more likely to experience problems. At the same time, we work to strengthen the protective factors that can help prevent individuals and communities from developing such problems.
Why Try
Why Try is a research-based, multi-session youth program that meets weekly (10 sessions) to enhance internal strengths and resiliency, while preventing youth involvement in substance abuse and other high risk behaviors.
The Why Try program is for youth in elementary school through high school who have experienced ongoing academic, behavioral, substance abuse, or legal problems. Students are referred into the program when they are at risk of failing academically, having disciplinary problems, and/or if severe life stressors are identified in their lives. Referrals are typically made by school advisors, Resource Officers, social workers, DJJ and psychologists.
Retail Enforcement
Reducing youth access to alcohol is recognized as one of the most effective alcohol prevention strategies. The Phoenix Center is proud to work with community partners through the Greenville County Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws Coalition (EUDL) which was established to reduce youth access to alcohol in Greenville County.
The EUDL Coalition has been successful in the creation of a Multi-jurisdictional Alcohol Enforcement Unit (AET) that enforces drinking laws through compliance checks, party patrols, and traffic sobriety checkpoints. The EUDL Coalition works to enhance Greenville County systems that support and maintain consistent underage drinking laws and their enforcement. They also strive to create an awareness of the problems caused by underage drinking and the solutions to address these issues in Greenville County.
Since 2003, we have worked with local law enforcement to achieve a 80% reduction in the number of retail establishments selling alcohol and tobacco to minors.
Combating Opioids
The Empowering Communities for Healthy Outcomes Coalition (ECHO Greenville) was established with funding from the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention
(CSAP), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) and
administered by the South Carolina Department of Alcohol and Drug Abuse
Services (DAODAS).
ECHO Greenville works with local partners to prevent prescription drug misuse
for a healthy Greenville through community advocacy, accountability, and
action. The Coalition has developed a network community partners that
consists of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, law enforcement, treatment
providers, & other community partners to combat the opioid epidemic.
They have held several forums in an effort to education the community as well
as the medical field in the dangers of the over prescription of these substances.
The coalition has also been able to place medication drop boxes throughout Greenville County where the community can safely dispose of unused pills, liquids, or other medications so that these substances do not get in the hands of minors or others who may misuse these drugs. Since the start of the coalition in 2016, Greenville County has been able to safely collect and dispose of over 5,000lbs of medication through the dropbox collaboration.