Impact Norwood is an organization aimed at substance abuse prevention in students. The group of passionate students, led by Senior Joann Yamoah and supervised by program coordinator Bob Blood, meets every Wednesday at 6:45-7:30 pm on Zoom.
The organization allows students themselves to spread awareness of various issues and express a positive message to people of all ages throughout Norwood. These messages prove incredibly valuable to an audience of people who need it most, especially the students and teens they directly speak to.
Yamoah said, “Impact Norwood means to me being able to not only interact with people in the older generations and people in the younger generations, but also to change that stigma that comes with [substance] use. A lot of the older generations think that all youths are doing this, or they’re so reckless and stuff, but that’s not really the case. There’s only a really small percentage of youths that are drinking and vaping and all that stuff, and usually they have family issues and issues at home, and that’s why they’re doing it. So if we’re able to get into the root problem of what’s happening in these kids’ homes and why they are not doing so well mentally, then we can help them because most of the time it really is that there is something going on in people’s homes.”
In Norwood Public Schools, one such issue that has proved to be especially problematic in the past few years is drug and alcohol usage. To combat this, members of Impact Norwood lean in on their goal to break these toxic habits and patterns through different projects and presentations to spread awareness.
Program coordinator Bob Blood said that Impact Norwood’s “message is to bring drug and alcohol awareness and prevention. We don’t do intervention, so we don’t sit down and tell people they need to stop doing these drugs. It’s just to focus on the positive stuff that the youth do today, and that not every single kid is, you know, having beers on Saturday nights or whatever. There’s a lot of good students in the town that do a good job, but we also want to alert them to the dangers of alcoholism and using substances. Your brain isn’t fully developed, too. If you start drinking at an early age, it starts to affect your brain development, and the same thing if you use marijuana too.”
Other members of the coalition such as Kese Motlotle believe that the initiative serves as a way to get ahead of these issues before they happen, with Motlotle describing it as a “preventative program” that allows students to “spread the word especially to the younger generation,” with the program “going around to schools and teaching them different ways to communicate with each other and their adults as well.”
One major way the organization spreads its message is through a variety of independent projects and campaigns. A recent project of Impact Norwood’s was Escape the Vape, a PSA promoting awareness against vaping, a prevalent issue in Norwood Public Schools.
Youth Ambassador Aryanksh Parida said he joined “because I wanted to start my own project called ‘Escape the Vape’ and my guidance counselor reached out to Impact Norwood for me, and we partnered up.”
The organization also spreads its messages through other smaller, yet effective mediums. This allows the group to promote its message to a wider audience and a larger number of people while still being able to focus its efforts on specific projects and campaigns.
Members of the organization contribute to these various informational tasks, with Youth Ambassador Peter Jeneid describing how “the organization puts out PSAs and works towards projects that promote what our club stands for,” with this being “through our Instagram and through our social media pages.”
In addition, Impact Norwood creates many campaigns to raise awareness of the negative health effects of substance abuse.
Youth Leader Joann Yamoah said, “Escape the Vape was a campaign that [Aryanksh] came to Bob [Blood] with, and it was basically a way for us to say ‘hey, vaping is really bad.’ Like nicotine is worse than if you were to smoke a cigarette, because in the cart of a vape, it has about a whole pack or two packs of cigarettes or something in one tiny cart, so it’s way worse than if you were to smoke cigarettes. We say escape the vape because the nicotine is very addicting. Bin the Zyn was another one that Meghan came up with because we kept seeing Zyn packets everywhere. We come up with campaigns, recently we’ve been focusing on interactive lessons and outreach because the grant is ending soon for Impact Norwood.”
In their quest to lower drug and alcohol usage in these most vulnerable years, the group also works to connect with younger grades and spread awareness about substance abuse.
Youth Ambassador Deandrey Alexandre explained, “What we’ve been doing this year is trying to connect with the youth, so we’ve been going down to the middle school, talking and giving presentations about mental health and how to address mental health, how to communicate with peers, parents, and trusted adults. Not only are we here to put out the flyers that you guys see in like hallways, but we also just make sure that our community is together and our youth is represented.”
While at face value the group may seem like it only functions to fulfill these tasks and projects, members highlighted that the organization does much more than that. It builds relationships and contributes to creating a stronger, more responsible community by setting an example for those who come after.
Jeneid described that “It means building a stronger community.”
Motlotle similarly expressed this sentiment and said, “I have two younger brothers, and I’m also a swim instructor and a gymnastics instructor. I’ve always been around kids my whole life, and to know that they’re in good hands and have those resources closer to them, that means a lot to me.”
Impact Norwood is not only a positive outlet where members discuss positive habits and responsibility; the coalition is a strong way to gain community service hours and meet new people.
Youth Ambassador Adamaris Troncoso said, “[Impact Norwood] is a good way to meet people. Also, I gained a lot of my community service hours, and I have over 200 community service hours with Impact Norwood. It’s a great way to be a part of the community in a positive manner.”
Furthermore, membership in the coalition poses additional advantages to those who are interested in pursuing an education or career in the medical field in the future.
Yamoah said, “Someone should join Impact Norwood if they really 100% go into premed. I think that if you really want to go into the healthcare field, Impact Norwood is a great way to step into that, just because you get to work in the public health sector, and you get to meet a bunch of people through it. Right now, we’re working with Tufts for a community thing called HOPE, and I think it’s amazing. I’ve been able to help the health department, and I’ve been able to do a wellness magazine through Impact Norwood as an internship. So if you really want to get into healthcare, Impact Norwood is a great way to step into it.”
While the tangible benefits of Impact Norwood certainly speak for themselves, members of the organization also highlight how their contributions to the community affected them on a personal level. Members described this intangible benefit as a sense of accomplishment, knowing that what they worked towards would help people in their community who needed it most.
Parida said, “I think that knowing that I am doing something good for the community feels really good,” and that he has gained “an opportunity to serve my community and be able to meet new people, including the seniors and people in my community.”
Program coordinator Bob Blood joined Impact Norwood because substance abuse affected him on a deeper level. He joined because he wanted to make a difference in the community and give back.
“[I chose to join because] I had a brother who struggled with alcoholism. Sadly, he passed away at age 54, eight years ago. [Also], one of my positions when I was working with the Department of Corrections was where I was a director of security at the Mass alcoholic substance abuse center, in Bridgewater that now moved down to Plymouth. And that really opened my eyes to what I saw with my brother, like what it did to my parents, but then when you go to work, and see it every day, it made an impression on me, and I just wanted to give back,” said Blood.
He now works as the “program coordinator, it’s a part-time position, so I only work 19 hours a week. And I mainly focus on coming to the middle and high schools to drum up support for our youth ambassadors and encourage enrollment in Impact Norwood,” Blood said.
Although Impact Norwood has been working for years with the federal grant that they were given, that grant is coming to a close.
Blood said, “Impact Norwood has a federally funded grant from the CDC. Our town got a 10-year, $1.25 million grant. We’re currently approaching year 9, so then part of the deal is that the town would pick up the funding once the grant expires. The grant expires in September of 2027.”
After this grant expires, the future of Impact Norwood’s funding and sustainability is somewhat uncertain.
Moving forward, the organization will have to find other means to be able to continue its contributions to the Norwood community. Whether this be through fundraising or grants from the town, the group will do its best to keep the highly influential and effective body that Impact Norwood has been alive.
At the end of the day, these committed students are continuing to do their part as noble Samaritans and give their efforts towards projects and discussions that have undeniable effects on Norwood’s youth.
As said by Yamoah, “the message and something to take away is creating a healthier Norwood,” not just for the people that walk in it today, but for all who will follow in their footsteps.
