November 2024

Call for Nominations: SAPCA Officers and Board Members

The Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition of Alexandria (SAPCA) invites qualified and motivated youth and adults to submit nomination applications to serve as officers and members of the Board for SAPCA. 

Please send the nomination form to those you think are good candidates and interested in serving on the SAPCA Board. We need current and future community leaders to provide their ideas, thoughts and time to reducing and ending youth substance use and misuse in Alexandria. 

Nominations are sought for the following positions:

• Four officer positions - Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary and Treasurer (each with a two year term, January 2025 - December 2027).
• Five members of the Board of Directors (each with a two-year term, January 2025 - December 2027). At least one member must be a youth.

Time Commitment 

SAPCA's Board of Directors, which includes its officers, meets the fourth Monday of each month from 6-7:30 p.m.

Nomination Guidelines

1. Nominees must be members in good standing with SAPCA.
2. Nominees may be adults or Alexandria middle and high school students (public or private grades 8-12).

Nomination Procedures

Nominations should be submitted using this form. The deadline to submit your nomination application is November 18 at 5 p.m.

Recap: Stronger Together Family Workshop



On October 21, SAPCA collaborated with Alexandria City Public Schools (ACPS), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the City of Alexandria to host Stronger Together, a family workshop focused on working together to build safer, stronger communities. During this event, SAPCA Coordinator Emma Beall highlighted health risks associated with vaping and youth marijuana use and shared strategies to prevent youth substance use. This event also included a presentation from the DEA about the dangers of fentanyl and testimony from an ACPS parent who shared his family's experience navigating addiction and recovery.

This event was part of coordinated efforts to inform and engage our community about the importance of working together to prevent substance use. SAPCA looks forward to continuing to collaborate with our partners to prevent youth substance use and promote healthy decision making.

Five Things You Should Know about Vaping

E-cigarettes -- often called e-cigs, vapes, vaping devices, or vape pens -- come in a variety of shapes and sizes.

Here are five things you should know about vaping:

1. Most youth in Alexandria do not vape, a trend to get behind. According to the 2023 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, only 2% of ACPS 8th grade and 6% of ACPS 10th and 12th grade students reported vaping.

2. Many vaping devices contain nicotine, a highly addictive chemical.

3. Vaping can affect mental health by making depression and anxiety worse.

4. Vaping devices produce an aerosol, which the user inhales. Many of the chemicals in this aerosol are known to be harmful -- including benzene, lead, formaldehyde, acetone, diacetyl, and heavy metals.

5. The legal age to purchase, possess, or use all tobacco products -- including vaping devices -- is 21.

Learn more facts about vaping here.

Alexandria Celebrates Red Ribbon Week

Each year, SAPCA joins our community in celebrating Red Ribbon Week from October 23-31, an alcohol, tobacco, and other drug prevention awareness campaign. Red Ribbon Week is the oldest and largest drug prevention program and is an ideal way for people and communities to unite and take a visible stand against drugs. This year's theme was "Life Is A Movie. Film Drug Free."

This year, SAPCA participated in Red Ribbon Week by:

• Encouraging students to enter the Red Ribbon Week Poster Contest. Three winners will receive a $100 gift card and have their poster featured in Red Ribbon Week 2025! ACPS students can enter the poster contest until November 10, 2024.
• Recognizing Red Ribbon Week through a City proclamation.
• Delivering assemblies to more than 1,500 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students at Francis C. Hammond Middle School in collaboration with the DEA. During assemblies, students learned facts about alcohol, marijuana, vaping, and fentanyl and took the Red Ribbon Week pledge to stand up against substance use. Students also participated in a gallery walk to view the DEA's Faces of Fentanyl exhibit, which commemorates the lives lost from fentanyl poisoning.



Thanks to everyone who helped make these activities a huge success!

City of Alexandria Launches Respect Campaign

In recognition of National Substance Use Prevention Month and National Bullying Prevention Month, SAPCA and the Mayor’s Campaign to End Bullying launched the Respect Campaign,, a series of short videos created by Alexandria City High School (ACHS) students.

These videos feature students defining what respect means to them, sharing ways to show respect, and highlighting how substance use impacts their school and community. The campaign invites social media followers to share these videos, along with their own definitions of respect and suggestions for how to show respect for ourselves, others, our schools, and our community.

This series was created in response to concerns about youth safety and substance use and complements several video series previously created by the ACHS TV and Media Production program, including:

• “A Bully Free Alexandria: It Starts With Me and You,” a series of videos featuring youth and adults sharing ways they can prevent bulling in our schools and our community; and
• Three multi-media prevention campaigns encouraging youth to be substance free. The videos, which feature Alexandria youth sharing reasons why they do not drink alcohol, use marijuana, or use e-cigarettes/vaping devices, reinforce and raise awareness of the social norm that the majority of youth in Alexandria choose to be substance free. These campaigns can be accessed on SAPCA’s YouTube channel.

Visit alexandriava.gov/SAPCA to learn more about ways to prevent substance use and misuse. Visit alexandriava.gov/EndBullying for more information about the Mayor’s Campaign to End Bullying.

Fall Medication Disposal Recap

With the support of multiple efforts to prevent and end medication misuse and abuse, the City of Alexandria collected and safely disposed of a total of 405 lbs. of unused, expired and unwanted prescription and over-the-counter medication.

On October 26, 205 lbs. of medication were collected during National Prescription Drug Take Back Day. Additionally, 200 lbs. of medication were collected this fall during a take back event at Goodwin House Alexandria.

We appreciate the wonderful volunteers from CADCA for supporting outreach efforts during drug take back day by sharing information about our community's year-round permanent medication drop boxes and distributing free at home drug disposal kits to promote the Over the Dose Campaign. This campaign encourages residents to safely dispose of unwanted medication to eliminate the risk of misuse and prevent overdose.

SAPCA thanks and recognizes our community partners for their efforts to dispose of unused and expired medication safely:

• Alexandria Police Department
• Alexandria Sheriff's Office
• CADCA
• Neighborhood Pharmacy of Del Ray
• Fire Station 210
• Goodwin House Alexandria
• Inova Alexandria
• Walgreens Pharmacy
• Woodbine Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center
• Alexandria Medical Reserve Corp
• Alexandria Opioid Work Group

Needles are not accepted in the permanent medication drop boxes. Dispose of needles and syringes at a separate permanent drop box specifically for these items located inside the visitor's entrance at Inova Alexandria Hospital. The box is accessible at the same location and hours as the hospital’s drop off box for medications. 

Visit alexandriava.gov/Opioids for more information about safe medicine disposal and to learn about Alexandria’s efforts regarding the opioid crisis.

Washington Regional Alcohol Program Honors SAPCA Board Treasurer Fredy Martinez

Last month, the Washington Regional Alcohol Program (WRAP) honored SAPCA Board of Directors Treasurer and ACPS Substance Use Prevention & Early Intervention Services Coordinator Fredy Martinez during the WRAP 2024 annual meeting. During this event, Fredy received the 2024 Youth Leadership Award for his "steadfast commitment to both prevention and safe and sober youth."

Please join us in congratulating Fredy Martinez for receiving this extraordinary honor and thanking him for his positive impact in our community!

Founded in 1982, WRAP is an award-winning public-private partnership working to prevent drunk driving and underage drinking in the Washing ton-metropolitan area. Through public education, innovative health education programs and advocacy, WRAP is credited with helping to keep the annual percentage of metro-Washington traffic deaths involving alcohol-impaired driving historically lower than the national average.

Quick Links

Upcoming Youth Development Trainings

• The next Youth Mental Health First Aid training will take place in-person on November 12 from 9 a.m. - 5 p.m. Register here.
• The next Question. Persuade. Refer. training will take place virtually on November 14 from 10 a.m. - 12 p.m. Register here.
• The next Everyone's An Asset Builder training will take place in-person on November 21 from 10 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. Register here.



Contact temi.aregbesola@alexandriava.gov for more information.

Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition of Alexandria 

4850 Mark Center Drive

Alexandria, VA 22311