Our Mission

The mission of VARSA is to reduce and prevent underage drug and alcohol use by engaging, educating and empowering the communities we serve.

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Our Core Purpose

The vision of VARSA is for Vashon Island to be "a community united in developing and sustaining an environment where youth can grow up drug and alcohol free."

Our Core Values

Engage, educate, empower
Each day we work toward a community that engages with our Island’s youth around the issues of underage drug and alcohol use on Vashon. We seek to educate all sectors of our Island on the dangers and impact of underage drug and alcohol use, and empower our youth to make healthy choices.
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Diversity & Sensitivity
We continually seek to understand and honor each person. We treat our members and staff with the utmost respect and dignity. We embrace cultural and ethnic diversity, understanding the sensitivity of the issues we face together.
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Community
We place value on the sense of community we maintain inside VARSA and on the way we integrate ourselves into the larger Vashon Island community. Our culture at VARSA is built on an ideal of equality and a spirit of teamwork, where all members are valued for their contributions.
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Excellence
We approach our work with professionalism, integrity and commitment. We seek to continuously improve and, in all we do, service to our community comes first.

Our Funding

Funding for VARSA comes from Washington State Health Care Authority,  Division of Behavioral Health and Recovery, and the King County Mental Health, Chemical Abuse and Dependency Services Division.  The Community Prevention and Wellness Initiative grant brings support and funding to specifically address our youth substance use issues.


For more than ten years, VARSA has received grant funding to impact underage drug and alcohol use on Vashon.


Utilizing federal, state and local grants, as well as community donations, VARSA has been able to finance a number of different programs for parent education and youth centered events.