About La Center United

The coalition formed as a grassroots effort by concerned citizens in the spring of 2013 in response to multiple mental health crisis occurring amongst youth in our community. In the fall of 2013, a Drug Free Community Mentoring grant was awarded to PREVENT Coalition with the La Center community as the designated mentee.

In 2014, the coalition completed a branding process and officially became known as La Center United. In addition, they completed the process to become a non-profit 501(c)(3). The coalition also recruited more than 40 students to attend the “Teens Care 2” Youth Summit. At 40 students, La Center had the most youth represented despite being the second smallest school district in attendance. This forum helped our students learn leadership skills and prevention ideas to share with their school.

La Center United was awarded the Drug Free Communities grant (DFC) in 2015. This marked the beginning of capacity building for substance abuse prevention within the La Center community. Jennifer Kirby became the first Coalition Coordinator supporting coalition volunteers to implement the Strategic Prevention Framework.

In 2016, La Center United focused on gathering data and learning more about the community. The Healthy Youth Survey was implemented into the school and the Community Survey was given out to members of the community. With this information we were able to evaluate our efforts and refocus on our mission.

Coalition members attended events and workshops to help establish themselves within the community. These events include: NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Walk, La Center Our Days, National Night Out, Summer Coalition Leadership Institute, and Drug Take Back Events.

The New Year brought new opportunities for youth in our community. La Center United opened a “Teen Center” in February of 2018. This center is meant to serve as a safe place for teens to come after school to just hang out and be themselves. During the year, La Center United also underwent changes and started working with ESD 112 has their fiscal agent. This brought a new staff member to the team. Angela Johnson was hired as a full time Project Coordinator.