Alliance Against Substance Abuse Committee

Our Vision

The vision of the River Edge Municipal Alliance Against Substance Abuse Committee is a substance abuse free healthy community.

Our Mission

The mission of the River Edge Municipal Alliance Against Substance Abuse Committee is to organize and coordinate resources and activities to educate all residents on ways to prevent and reduce substance abuse in River Edge.

We have supported the Junior Police Academy and LEAD program yearly. Both of these programs foster a relationship with our police department. Both help educate our youth about the dangers of alcohol and tobacco, but more importantly the respect for one’s self and others.

We work with our elementary schools by fostering social and emotional well-being, making good choices and resiliency by providing guest speakers/assemblies and having district wide presenters for both parents and students. We also provide classroom/library materials focused on wellness, resilience and prevention.  

At our middle school and high school, we have supported staff with Mindfulness Training Program to bring into the classrooms. We have guest speakers/assemblies come in to promote the dangers of alcohol/tobacco/vaping and drugs. We select students to attend leadership programs such as LMTI and The ELKS program. We provide in school AIR presentations in both the middle and high schools. We also provide a resource table for both buildings at their Back to School Nights. For our senior class we support the efforts of their Project Graduation each year. This gives our senior class an alcohol/drug free graduation night experience.  

We support our community at large by having a resource table at River Edge Day. We support our library health program for the youth in the summer. We work with our senior populations to promote good healthy choices for living. We work closely with the members of our STIGMA free group to provide community members with educational programs that promote well-being and deter people from making poor choices.

We also work in collaboration with Oradell for a Tween/Teen Night Out program that promotes a fun night that is alcohol and drug free.

Member	Title
Elizabeth Oudens	Community Member
Arlene Faustini	RE Community Health Nurse
Barry Benson	Council Liaison
Joe Zemaites, Chair	RE Police Liaison
Brenton Prisendorf	RE Police LEAD Officer
Maureen Kehoe	RD High School Liaison
Adam Facendola	RD Middle School Liaison
Randi O'Neil	River Dell SAC
Janel Blake	Elementary School Counselor
Tara Malkowski	Elementary School Counselor
Kathy Caslin	Community Member
Terry O'Shea	Community Member
Christiana Evers	Community Member
Stephanie Hartman	Community Member
Everlin Kim	Community Member
Claudia O'Neill	Community Member
Leidy Suriel	County Coordinator