This article is the first in a two-part series exploring the results of the Communities That Care Coalition’s 2025 Prevention Needs Assessment Survey. The coalition is co-hosted by the Franklin Regional Council of Governments and Community Action Pioneer Valley.
GREENFIELD — New data from the Communities That Care Coalition’s Prevention Needs Assessment Survey shows that while youth tobacco, alcohol and drug use went down this year, students from Franklin County and the North Quabbin region are attempting, planning and thinking about suicide more often.
Since 2003, the Communities That Care Coalition has surveyed more than 40,000 students in grades eight, 10 and 12 from all nine public school districts in Franklin County and the North Quabbin region to evaluate youth habits and overall emotional and physical health.
Coalition officials gathered at the John W. Oliver Transit Center, alongside members of the Franklin Regional Council of Governments (FRCOG), on Wednesday morning to present the 2025 data and discuss potential solutions in a series of breakout groups.
Mohawk Trail Regional School student Anna Whitaker, who serves as a Communities That Care Coalition peer leader, presented data showing a roughly 1% drop both in regular youth prescription drug use and cigarette smoking, from 3% to 2%, between 2024 and 2025. Binge drinking saw a 2% decrease from 7% in 2024 to 5% in 2025, and both vaping and cannabis use saw 3% decreases, with cannabis use rates dropping from 16% in 2024 to 13% in 2025 and vaping dropping from 15% to 12%.
Students who reported ever using smokeless tobacco or heroin, however, increased slightly between 2022 and 2025, Whitaker reported. In 2022, no students reported trying heroin, compared to 1% in 2025. While 5% of surveyed students reported trying smokeless tobacco in 2022, 7% reported having at least once used it in 2025.
“Even 1% of students using heroin is far too many,” Whitaker said. “We also know that student substance use often becomes much more serious for young people in their 20s and 30s as drugs on the market become much more easily accessible and stronger, which makes our prevention work for students very important.”
Data presented by Communities That Care Coalition peer leader Silas Giguere showed that both symptoms of depression and self-harm among surveyed students have dipped following a 22-year peak in 2023.
However, the data showed a 2% increase in surveyed students who reported having thoughts of suicide, from 14% in 2024 to 16% in 2025. Year-over-year, the percentage of students who reported suicidal planning increased from 11% to 13% and the number of students who reported attempting suicide rose from 6% to 7%.
“It’s definitely concerning, the suicide attempts and the suicidal planning going up, and that suicidal thoughts are going up is definitely concerning. The last time we measured it, they were going down, and now they’re going back up a little bit,” Communities That Care Coalition Coordinator Kat Allen said. “Each of the schools have an evidence-based suicide prevention program in place for signs of suicide in any of our schools.”
Allen added that the coalition is working with Franklin County and North Quabbin schools to implement universal mental health screening under the Signs of Suicide program. She noted that although the survey is anonymous, the program gives students the opportunity to report a fellow student who is believed to be in trouble.
“This is an intervention that helps train kids to recognize when a friend is talking in ways that are concerning, how to find a trusted adult and then talk to them,” Allen said. “It’s free to all schools in Massachusetts and it’s been shown to be effective.”