City of Santa Clarita officials announced they will be taking a different approach toward informing parents about substance abuse this year in response to community feedback.
After a sparsely attended parent symposium last fall, the city announced it is continuing its outreach with a different approach.
“This year, based on participant feedback, we are updating our Parent Resource Symposium, with a new format called ‘Parenting for Prevention,’ which will incorporate multiple outreach methods,” according to an email Wednesday from Carrie Lujan, director of communications for the city of Santa Clarita.
She said the change was made based on “feedback about how parents would like to get information on drug prevention, what communication methods they prefer.”
The “crucial information” will be pushed out to parents on social media, through in-person meetings on school campuses and with a new podcast series that will feature local substance-abuse experts, she said.
The release dates for the podcasts have not been scheduled, she added, but there will be several different times.
The L.A. County Public Health Department issued a report this week indicating data for fentanyl deaths might have reached a plateau and overdoses in general are on the decline.
Over the past decade, the city’s annual informational symposium for parents has offered insights on a range of substance abuse issues affecting the community, such as heroin, vaping, prescription pill abuse and, most recently, fentanyl.
Those seminars were put together with assistance from the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station’s Juvenile Intervention Team, which was disbanded earlier this year due to personnel shortages at the station.
