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Regional Advisory Board

Stanley Brizz

MS, Addictions and Substance Misuse Counselor
Executive Director
Uplift Drug-Free Coalitions

Stanley Brizz is Executive Director of Uplift Drug-Free Coalitions in Florida and Chairperson of Brevard County's Opioid Misuse Task Force. In addition, he is an addictions and substance misuse counselor for a regional medication assisted treatment (MAT) provider. He has a master's degree in psychology specializing in Industrial-Organizational Psychology and he has a graduate certificate in Addictions and Substance Abuse Counseling from University of South Florida (USF). Mr. Brizz has managed several substance misuse prevention initiatives for Brevard County and neighboring counties' coalitions in Florida. These initiatives included large-scale media campaigns sponsored by Central Florida Cares Health System, Inc. and the State of Florida, Department of Children and Families. He has overseen and helped operate school-based substance misuse prevention programs, a mentoring program for children of incarcerated parents, a therapeutic supervised visitation program, a rapid rehousing case management program for individuals with substance use history and prevention initiatives funded through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Drug-Free Communities Grant support program, the Substance Abuse and Health Administration (SAMHSA), local school districts, and municipalities. Mr. Brizz is a frequent presenter and exhibitor at the national annual Rx & Illicit Drug Summit and similar events. He has also presented at the CADCA Mid-Year Training Institute for substance misuse prevention. Locally, he has participated on the Together In Partnership (T.I.P.) steering committee of the Brevard County Board of Commissioners in Florida, serves on the Continuum of Care (CoC) advisory council for Brevard Homeless Coalition and is Vice Board Chair of Florida High School for Accelerated Learning - Brevard, Inc. (Riverside Charter High School), a dropout prevention and credit recovery school.

2027 Sessions

Where Prevention Meets Intervention: How Better Without It® Scales Youth Engagement and Diversion

Session Description: Public health campaigns often face a critical gap between high-level media awareness and measurable, localized youth action. This session bridges that gap by examining the expansion of the Better Without It (BWI) initiative from a localized four-county pilot into a multi-tiered model deployed across Florida municipalities and the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Led by Stanley Brizz of Uplift Drug-Free Coalitions, this presentation moves beyond basic media metrics to dissect how BWI utilizes an evidence-informed Positive Youth Development (PYD) framework across the entire prevention continuum. Attendees will analyze how BWI scales effectively across different community tiers: from grassroots municipal actions (such as targeted movie theater and community events in Nassau, Duval, and Putnam counties), to comprehensive county-wide youth diversion and alternative-to-suspension programming in Brevard and Escambia counties, up to full statewide infrastructures featuring localized youth ambassador networks, toolkits, and the "Level Up Leadership" pilot in Kentucky. Crucially, the session will highlight the powerful intersection where primary prevention meets early intervention. Through firsthand case studies and video narratives featuring diverse student perspectives-including youth sports ambassadors, peer leaders, and participants from the Escambia diversion program-presenters will demonstrate how coalitions can seamlessly operationalize BWI assets. Attendees will walk away with an actionable, scalable blueprint to transform a modern media message into a concrete, youth-led movement that reduces substance misuse and provides restorative pathways for at-risk youth.

Presenter

Wednesday, March 31 1:15–2:30 PM
1.25 Credits
Prevention
Regional Advisory Board

Stanley Brizz

MS, Addictions and Substance Misuse Counselor
Executive Director
Uplift Drug-Free Coalitions

Stanley Brizz is Executive Director of Uplift Drug-Free Coalitions in Florida and Chairperson of Brevard County's Opioid Misuse Task Force. In addition, he is an addictions and substance misuse counselor for a regional medication assisted treatment (MAT) provider. He has a master's degree in psychology specializing in Industrial-Organizational Psychology and he has a graduate certificate in Addictions and Substance Abuse Counseling from University of South Florida (USF). Mr. Brizz has managed several substance misuse prevention initiatives for Brevard County and neighboring counties' coalitions in Florida. These initiatives included large-scale media campaigns sponsored by Central Florida Cares Health System, Inc. and the State of Florida, Department of Children and Families. He has overseen and helped operate school-based substance misuse prevention programs, a mentoring program for children of incarcerated parents, a therapeutic supervised visitation program, a rapid rehousing case management program for individuals with substance use history and prevention initiatives funded through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Drug-Free Communities Grant support program, the Substance Abuse and Health Administration (SAMHSA), local school districts, and municipalities. Mr. Brizz is a frequent presenter and exhibitor at the national annual Rx & Illicit Drug Summit and similar events. He has also presented at the CADCA Mid-Year Training Institute for substance misuse prevention. Locally, he has participated on the Together In Partnership (T.I.P.) steering committee of the Brevard County Board of Commissioners in Florida, serves on the Continuum of Care (CoC) advisory council for Brevard Homeless Coalition and is Vice Board Chair of Florida High School for Accelerated Learning - Brevard, Inc. (Riverside Charter High School), a dropout prevention and credit recovery school.
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