From right: Care Coordinator Liz Monopoli, Maya Burque and Shayla Crump.
Photo credit: West Side Media
WEST SPRINGFIELD — West Springfield CARE Coalition student representatives Maya Burque and Shayla Crump are expanding their knowledge on how to create a safer and healthier community with youth substance use prevention.
Burque and Crump, alongside CARE Coordinator Liz Monopoli, traveled to Maryland to attend the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America’s National Leadership Forum in February 2026, sharing what they learned and what the coalition’s plans are moving forward at the School Committee meeting on April 14.
The CARE Coalition is a group that works to strengthen community capacity to support positive youth development and reduce risky behavior. It collaborates with schools, police and other organizations with a youth voice at the center of prevention work.
CADCA’s website states it was “born from a nationwide need to mobilize communities against rising drug use.” It represents over 7,000 coalitions in the United States and more than 28 countries, equipping them with tools, knowledge and support needed to create positive community change.
“Going to CADCA, it gave us the opportunity to hear from other leaders, youth from all over the country,” Burque said. “We met people from other places in Massachusetts, all the way to Texas, Missouri, Guam. It was honestly really educational hearing how substance use affects people in other communities and how they are actively trying to battle it.”
Burque added that the coalition was able to meet with Belchertown’s coalition and are staying in contact for a future partnership. She added that the learned skills and training involved “leveling up communication, importance of project evaluations to make future ones better, building future-proof youth coalitions and designing creative strategies for prevention competencies.”
Crump said the most impactful training programs were building communication skills to confidently communicate everywhere, a coalition ideas fair to see what other coalitions are doing in their communities and exploring how social media influences mental health and substance use trends.
Burque said the “biggest part of CADCA” was Capitol Hill day, in which people get the chance to meet with members of the U.S. Congress to share what their coalition is actively doing.
Both students had the opportunity to speak with U.S. Rep. Richard Neal and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren about “why youth prevention funding was our most important factor and the challenges students our age and younger face today – vaping, drinking, mental health struggles and social pressures,” according to the coalition’s presentation.
Burque added that they had a “very lengthy” conversation with a member of Warren’s office local to the area who “understood how underrepresented the area can be in a lot of legal processes.”
“They understood we needed funding and promised they would keep in touch and try their best to get us what we needed,” Burque said.
There are plans moving forward to host a summit with every Massachusetts coalition to share strategies and successful programs, build stronger inter-coalition partnerships and encourage youth-to-youth collaboration.
The coalition also made a request to open middle and elementary school sectors and to expand future CADCA trips by bringing more students. Crump said more students on the trip would make it more impactful by allowing the opportunity to do more of what’s offered. Burque added that you can only “conquer and divide so much when there’s two people.”
“Some of the days there were like, eight different trainings you could go to and obviously we could only go to two,” Burque said. “We had to pick the ones we thought would benefit us the most out of the many options.”
The coalition created a board after inspiration from CADCA training that includes a vice president, social media and marketing managers, youth engagement coordinators, project managers and an event planner. Burque said the board helps to bring more ideas in because “the more heads you have, the more the creative juices can flow.”
Burque said what resonated with her from the CADCA trip was that the goal “wasn’t just to recruit youth but to grow leaders who build other leaders,” and Crump added that the trip opened her eyes to other strategies the coalition can be doing more on top of what is already done.
“We’ve gotta build the community,” Crump said. “We can’t just be the only person that speaks up for the youth, because eventually they’re gonna have to do it. Why not help them and guide them to it much earlier?”
