Our History

The Hanover County Sheriff’s Office recognized a growing drug problem in 1997 after six

overdoses claimed the lives of county youth. A community forum was convened,

committees formed and a prevention coalition, ICARE, was established. From 1998 to

2009, the ICARE coalition met monthly, and leadership was shared between a citizen

member and a county staff member who served together as co-chairs. Although the

process remained informal, coalition progress leaned heavily on the county prevention

staff and school representatives. Decisions were made by an executive committee of

coalition members comprised of a few parents, and a few key agency representatives. To

increase both capacity and sustainability, the coalition established by-laws and applied for

501c3 status. The ICARE coalition was incorporated in the Commonwealth of Virginia and

received 501c3 status in 2012.

In the same year, Hanover County had an unprecedented number of homicides involving

teens, one of which occurred during the purchase of marijuana by a classmate. The

community responded with concern in this moment of crisis but did not maintain focus

on implementing change. In addition, the Hanover Youth Survey (HYS) has been

conducted since 2003 in collaboration with Hanover County Public Schools (HCPS). To

engage youth voice and leadership in changing community norms, the Teens Care Too

Coalition (TC2) was formed, also in 2012. The Strategic Prevention Framework –State

Incentive Grant (SFP-SIG) enabled Hanover Cares to focus on building capacity through

sector recruitment, member engagement, and data collection. The opportunity also

guided the implementation of the strategic prevention planning framework.

With the coalition evolving, members decided to update the name, mission, and vision

statements. The coalition became Hanover Cares. In 2019, coalition members again

revised the mission to better articulate the work of the coalition: "Hanover Cares is

dedicated to eliminating the use of alcohol, nicotine, and other drugs among Hanover

County youth, through education and community collaboration. The revised vision

statement provided both simplicity and clarity regarding coalition work: Hanover youth

make healthy drug-free choices. In 2016, the coalition hired a Program Director who has

provided consistent leadership and developed an active coalition board and membership

roster. Our participation and graduation from the CADCA National Coalition Academy in

2018 and the Graduate Coalition Academy in 2020 strengthened our coalition efforts to

improve our logic model and action plans, in addition to our evaluation and sustainability

plans. Coalition members have also attended the CADCA Leadership Forum and CADCA

Mid-Year conferences to expand their depth of knowledge in the field of prevention. These

training sessions have helped Hanover Cares establish activities and initiatives that

directly impact the youth substance use in Hanover County.