Prevention & Community Wellness
Our Prevention & Community Wellness division focuses on helping our community stay resilient, educated, and prepared.
Our team creates and distributes trainings, curriculums, and resources in hopes of preventing mental health and substance use challenges before they start.
Current Events
March is Problem Gambling Awareness Month! Learn more about problem gaming and gambling.
Focus Areas
- Community partnerships with the Boys and Girls Club, Roanoke City Public Schools, Roanoke Public Libraries, and more
- Grant-funded media campaigns promoting community wellness
- Youth substance use prevention
- Suicide prevention
- Opioid and fentanyl misuse/overdose prevention
- Family wellness and parenting workshops
- Safe storage of medications and firearms
- After school programming for resilient youth
- Too Good For Drugs curriculum
- Distribution of resources
- Problem gambling prevention
- Community event planning and hosting
Councils and Initiatives
Suicide Prevention Council of Roanoke Valley
This council meets regularly with our Community Wellness coordinators and specialists in order to build best practices and resources around suicide prevention.
Problem Gambling & Gaming Prevention
This initiative provides resources, trainings, and educational materials to help prevent problem gambling and gaming in the Roanoke Valley.
This initiative also runs several media campaigns throughout the year to spread the word about problem gambling and gaming prevention. Keep an eye and an ear out for our messaging in places like the Berglund Center, Snapchat, local radio stations, and more!
Family Wellness Roanoke
This initiative provides parenting classes and workshops in conjunction with community partners like the Department of Social Services. We also create and distribute resources related to parenting. If you are the parent of a child with disabilities, we recommend getting started at Parent Educational Advocacy Training Center.
We do not currently offer parenting classes for the general public. If you have been referred to parenting classes by Roanoke City DSS, please contact your social worker to get registered. Your case worker will contact us to get you enrolled.
If you are a parent seeking housing, please view our resources. BRBH offers therapy and case management for children, youth, and families.
Prevention & Community Wellness Nonprofits
BRBH fiscally supports two 501c3’s: the Roanoke Area Youth Substance Abuse Coalition (RAYSAC) and the Roanoke Prevention Alliance (RPA).
RAYSAC focuses on medication misuse prevention, while RPA focuses on building resilient, substance-free youth.
BRBH Trainings
We bring trainings to employers, religious organizations, schools, and more. Please review our trainings below and submit the interest form if you would like to set one up. Our trainings are free, but you must be a Virginia resident to participate.
REVIVE!
REVIVE! training covers information about opioids, risk factors for opioid overdoses, and how to respond to an opioid overdose emergency. After the training, you will receive 1 box of Naloxone (Narcan).
SafeTALK
An in-person training that teaches participants to recognize people with thoughts of suicide and to connect them to suicide intervention resources.
Mental Health First Aid
A training that teaches people how to recognize signs of mental health or substance use challenges in adults.
Youth Mental Health First Aid
A training that covers common mental health challenges for youth and typical adolescent development. This training teaches participants to help young people in both crisis and non-crisis situations.
Adverse Childhood Experiences
A training that helps participants understand the effects of childhood trauma and how to build resilience. Tailored trainings are available for school staff.
Talk Saves Lives
This presentation covers the general scope of suicide and what we can do to prevent it. Sponsored by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.
OpioidWISE
An all-ages presentation covering the identification and effects of opioids and fake pills, as well as education on overdoses.
The Path to Resilience
A training that provides tools and resources for professionals to build resilience with clients, youth, and any adult that they work with.
Problem Gaming & Gambling Prevention
This training includes an overview of gambling laws, signs & symptoms of problem gambling, and how to support someone experiencing problem gambling.