DEPEW, N.Y. — The efforts to combat substance abuse in Lancaster and Depew are now being boosted with a federal grant from Washington.
$625,000 in federal funding over five years will be used to hire staff and support programs for the group known as FOCUS: For Our Community Unity and Support, Inc Addiction Prevention Coalition.
FOCUS is a coalition of youth, education, law enforcement, and community leaders who work together to establish and support addiction prevention services.
"Today was really just to raise public awareness of this amazing opportunity that we have to inject a lot of money into this local community and really just continue our mission of preventing substance use in our youth for the Lancaster - Depew community," said Gwendolyn Bork, president of FOCUS.
Student representatives are a key part the FOCUS group, which helped secure the grant using a survey of students in the Lancaster and Depew school districts.