The Middletown Prevention Coalition has received a federal grant of close to $240,000 to expand its prevention work to opioids, counterfeit pills and fentanyl awareness.
The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration award is a supplement to the coalition’s existing Strategic Prevention Framework-Partnership for Success grant, bringing total funding under that program to $489,089. The work targets youth ages 12 to 18, young adults and parents in Middletown.
“This project will allow us to expand upon the MPC’s broader prevention efforts addressing youth alcohol, nicotine and marijuana use by incorporating opioid-specific prevention messaging,” said coalition Director Lori Verderosa. Young people will be involved throughout, she said, through leadership training, peer-to-peer activities and prevention messaging they create themselves.
Verderosa said opioids were involved in 60 percent of all overdose deaths in Newport County from the first quarter of 2024 through the second quarter of 2025. Between December 2025 and May 2026, the region recorded 114 nonfatal overdoses, 22 percent of them among people under 24 and 31 percent among adults over 55.
The coalition has worked in Middletown for more than two decades, bringing in speakers such as former basketball player Chris Herren, running school programs and organizing Wellness Month each March.
Its 17th annual Family Day is set for Saturday, Sept. 12, from 4 to 8 p.m. at Second Beach, 315 Sachuest Point Road, with face painting, potato sack races and bouncy houses. The event is free.
The coalition generally meets the fourth Thursday of the month at 6 p.m. at Town Hall. More information is at mdl.town/MPC.
