ORONO – The University of Maine’s Substance Abuse Prevention Services will hold a two-day training program for university staff members from six universities, local law enforcement agencies and members of the community Feb. 12-13.

The program is sponsored by the Maine Office of Substance Abuse in Augusta and will be conducted by instructors from the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention in Boston. The Higher Education Center presents similar programs throughout the country.

The theme of the Feb. 12 workshop is “Environmental Management and Coalitions.” Environmental management strategies aim to change community and campus norms, increase enforcement and reduce underage access to alcohol rather than attempting to influence individual decisions solely through education and intervention.

The Feb. 13 workshop, “Problem Analysis and Strategic Planning,” will give participants the chance to consider how to implement environmental prevention strategies in situations particular to their campuses and communities.

UMaine SAPS coordinator Kathryn McGloin said the training program was an important opportunity for university staff and members of the community to learn how best to work together.

“UMaine is working very hard at learning environmental management and coalition building with the community. We’ll listen to everyone – students, town government officials, purveyors of alcohol, landlords, neighbors. We’d love to have more people involved in the decision-making process. There are many opportunities for community members to become involved with alcohol and drug abuse prevention – and not just at this two-day training,” McGloin said.

The training is offered as part of the Office of Substance Abuse’s two-year Higher Education Alcohol Prevention Project, which in October received a $400,000 grant to be administered through the Maine Department of Behavioral and Development Services and the Justice Department’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

The Higher Education Alcohol Prevention Project distributes subgrants to UMaine, Central Maine Technical College, Eastern Maine Technical College, Maine Maritime Academy and Unity College. Those five schools, along with the University of Southern Maine, will have representatives at the training program.

Rebecca Matusovich, a prevention specialist at the Office of Substance Abuse, said the workshops would build on the programs that the participating universities already have implemented.

“This will be a more advanced training. The colleges involved with these workshops have already made many positive changes on-campus. Now they are taking it to a higher level. These colleges are beginning to solve the problem and deserve credit for their actions,” Matusovich said.

McGloin is working to build a campus-community coalition to discuss and implement abuse prevention strategies at UMaine and in the surrounding towns.

The coalition, which will begin meeting in March, will seek to include residents and decision-makers from diverse backgrounds.

For more information about attending the training program, or joining the campus-community coalition, contact McGloin at 581-4171.

For logistical information about the training program, contact Matusovich at 287-6415.

For information related to the content of the training program, contact Higher Education Center training specialist Robyn Priest at (800) 676-1730, Ext. 2750.