July 2026 Newsletter

July 2026

Announcements

Call for Volunteers: National Night Out

Alexandria will join communities across the country in celebration of National Night Out on Tuesday, August 4. For those who have not experienced this event, it is a fun evening where neighborhoods around the City host events, block parties, barbeques, etc. with the goal of preventing crime by building a sense of community.

SAPCA is seeking volunteers of all ages to visit neighborhoods and provide outreach about our work, including the upcoming Alexandria Youth Leadership Conference (YLC). This free event is open to rising 9th through 12th graders residing in the City of Alexandria and will be held August 11-13 at the Del Pepper Community Resource Center (4850 Mark Center Dr.)

Volunteers will:

Meet at the Del Pepper Community Resource Center, 4850 Mark Center Dr. on August 4 at 4:30 p.m. to join a team and receive neighborhood assignments.
Drive to assigned neighborhood events to connect with community members, promote the YLC, distribute prevention resources, and "cover the city" with information about our work.
Have fun, eat good food, and snap some pictures!
The total time commitment will be from approximately 4:30 - 7:30 p.m.

No previous experience is required to volunteer.

Please contact Emma Beall at emma.beall@alexandriava.gov or 571.302.1022 by July 31 if you want to join us for this fun community event!

Click here to register for the Youth Leadership Conference!

Reminder: Invitation to 2026 Youth Leadership Conference Networking Event

Dear Community Leaders,

The Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition of Alexandria (SAPCA) and the Alexandria Campaign on Adolescent Pregnancy (ACAP) cordially invite you to an in-person Networking Event with some of Alexandria's rising youth leaders, on Thursday, August 13, from 4 - 5 p.m. at the Del Pepper Community Resource Center Café (4850 Mark Center Dr.) Please register here by August 3.

In partnership with the Alexandria Sexual Assault Center and the Alexandria Library, SAPCA and ACAP are sponsoring the 13th annual Alexandria Youth Leadership Conference, an event to teach youth how to engage, lead, and advocate for issues in our community. We anticipate between 50 and 75 young leaders will participate in the leadership conference this year.

In addition to skill-building, the Youth Leadership Conference helps to strengthen essential building blocks for young people, or Developmental Assets, including a sense of feeling valued by their community, self-esteem, recognizing themselves as a resource to others, and planning and decision-making.

The Youth Leadership Conference is excited to continue our annual Networking Event to encourage youth civic engagement in Alexandria. Our goal is to facilitate youth-adult partnerships by providing a forum in which organizations can connect directly with Alexandria's youth leaders. Your participation as a leader in the Alexandria community is invaluable. Youth will have an opportunity to talk with you and other adult community leaders and learn about volunteer and leadership opportunities available in Alexandria. Youth have much to learn from your experience and are deeply connected to the work you are doing in our City.

This is also your opportunity to recruit youth who have the necessary skills to participate in your organization in a leadership position such as a member of your Board of Directors, Commission member, or Committee Chair. Many Alexandria boards, commissions and community groups have space reserved for youth representatives or could be stronger if youth voices were included in the group. Unfortunately, many youth spaces remain consistently unfilled, or organizations do not think of including youth leaders on their boards. Our aim is to help build a network of youth leaders who can serve effectively and to help boards, commissions, and community groups understand how to benefit from youth voices. We believe the first step is to have community leaders talk with youth to learn about their abilities and interests and to see where their voices and skills could fit within our community. To accomplish this, SAPCA and ACAP will work with you to:

Meet Alexandria's youth leaders at this Networking Event and throughout the year.
Help orient you as to why it is important or beneficial to have youth leaders on Alexandria's boards, commissions, and work groups, and
Work with you to make sure that our city's boards and commissions know how to engage youth who serve with your adult leadership.

We hope you can join us for this important event. If you have questions or would like more information, please contact one of us listed below.

Sincerely,

Celebrating Alexandria's Champions of Children

On Wednesday, June 10, the Children Youth and Families Collaborative Commission (CYFCC) recognized local leaders for their efforts to support the goals of the Children & Youth Community Plan (CYCP), a roadmap for how our community will work together to create the conditions for all young people to thrive in Alexandria. Please join us in recognizing this year's Champions of Children awardees:

Anais Muheiddin
Eva Hartman
Gaynelle Bowden-Diaz
Jennifer Kay
Jennifer Tutuska

Kristin Donley
Leia Stuart
Rachel Lotz
Sindy Carballo
Zohreh Khoshnamak

Two of these awardees, Kristin Donley and Leia Stuart, have been integral to SAPCA's efforts to prevent and reduce youth substance use.

Kristin is the K–12 Instructional Specialist for Health, Physical Education, and Family Life Education for Alexandria City Public Schools. Through this role, she has partnered closely with SAPCA to more effectively reach Alexandria youth, including collaborating to share local prevention information and resources through health classes and helping coordinate and schedule presentations to ACPS middle and high school students. Kristin joined the SAPCA Board of Directors in January 2025 and has been a dedicated member ever since, helping shape SAPCA's policy and strategy, while also bringing her perspective as a parent to the table. She is a thoughtful leader who consistently looks for ways to strengthen school environments so that students feel safe, supported, and heard.

Leia oversees the Peer Advocate Program. The Peer Advocates are a group of Alexandria youth who work closely with SAPCA, ACAP, and the Alexandria Sexual Assault Center to support prevention and outreach efforts. In this role, she mentors and recruits high school students, oversees workshop facilitation, and coordinates school and community presentations. Through this work, Leia amplifies teen voices, connects youth to resources, and cultivates leadership, advocacy, and public speaking skills. This past school year, Leia and the Peer Advocates helped promote Red Ribbon Week, the largest alcohol, tobacco, and other drug prevention awareness campaign, through ACHS classroom visits. Additionally, Leia helped plan Youth Speak Up, a youth-led event that brought together over 100 youth and adults to discuss youth issues, including substance use, and work together on solutions.

We are so appreciative of the many Champions of Children in Alexandria, and for our community's continued partnership to support Alexandria's youth.

The CYFCC provides advice, advocacy, and pertinent information to Alexandria City staff, City Council, School Board, and other relevant entities in order to influence policy and decisions that result in better outcomes for children, youth, and families in Alexandria. Learn more at alexandriava.gov/CYFCC

Five Things You Should Know: What is Kratom?

On July 1, 2026, a new law went into effect in Virginia that puts new restrictions on kratom sales. This legislation:

Bans the sale of kratom to anyone under 21;
Requires kratom products to be stored behind the counter or in a locked case;
Require kratom product labels to list all ingredients and include safety disclosures;
Limits the amount of 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-OH) in kratom products to 1mg per serving;
Bans kratom products that contain lab-made or chemically altered (synthetic) compounds;
Bans products mixed with dangerous or controlled substances, or made for vaping or injection; and
Bans products packaged or marketed in ways designed to appeal to children.

Here are five things you need to know about kratom:

Kratom is an herbal extract made from the leaves of a tropical evergreen tree, sold as an herbal supplement. It has some properties similar to opioids, but can also act as a mild stimulant.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned people not to use kratom due to safety concerns and addiction risk.
There are currently no federal laws regulating kratom. The FDA has not approved kratom as safe and does not check products to confirm what ingredients they contain or that they are free of contaminants. As a result, the strength and ingredients of kratom products can vary widely.
Kratom can cause a range of side effects, some of which can be dangerous. These include loss of appetite, insomnia, tremors, rapid heartbeat, itchiness, nausea, and vomiting. At high doses, kratom can cause seizures, and regular use has been linked to liver injury.
If you or someone else, especially a child, ingests kratom accidentally, call the Poison Control Center hotline at 1.800.222.1222. If the person is having severe side effects, call 911.

Learn more about kratom here.

Quick Links

Learn more about SAPCA

Subscribe to SAPCA's e-mail list

Make a tax-deductible donation to support local prevention efforts

Upcoming Events & Resources

Click here to RSVP.

For more details or to contribute online, visit VolunteerAlexandria.org/food

SummerQuest 2026

Can you dig it? Get ready to bury yourself in a good book this summer with Alexandria’s SummerQuest reading program! Open to children, teens, and adults, this year's theme is “Unearth A Story.”

From June through August, visit Alexandria Library locations in person and online for music, magic, storytelling, reading, nature shows, hands-on activities and more! Participants of all ages can earn prizes for reading and completing activities, including free books and tickets to a Washington Nationals or Washington Spirit game.

Scheduled events and a downloadable brochure for this year’s SummerQuest are list ed here. The full brochure is also available in Spanish, and the game boards for tracking your reading progress are available in Spanish, Amharic, Arabic, and Dari/Farsi.