Improving Youth Substance Abuse Prevention & Intervention:
A Regional Model for Bringing Evidence-based Strategies into Local Communities

Background:

In 2004, the MetroWest Community Health Care Foundation designated youth substance abuse prevention and intervention as a major priority. Massachusetts’ rates of youth alcohol and marijuana use were among the highest in the nation. Further, the Foundation found that evidence-based programs and practices in substance abuse prevention and intervention were not being utilized in the Foundation’s 25-town region.

The Foundation decided on a departure from its traditional grant-making strategy to bring about reduction in local youth substance use rates. It hired Education Development Center (EDC, Inc.) in Newton MA, to host a technical assistance and training center to guide the efforts of local funded communities. The Foundation also engaged Brandeis University to evaluate both the impact of the TA Center (MTAC) and of the local communities chosen to participate in the program. The combined grant funding, technical assistance and evaluation represents the largest single investment of the Foundation to date.

The Communities:

In April 2005 five communities (Framingham, Hopkinton, Milford/Bellingham, Needham and Wayland) were awarded three-year grants of $200,000. to:

• prevent substance abuse, including alcohol abuse, among middle and high schools students;
• provide for effective identification of those at greatest risk of abuse and addiction; and
• improve access to substance abuse treatment for those in need.

Specific efforts of the initial five communities:

Framingham –Increasing screening and intervention for middle school students who show early signs of substance use problems, improve research-based prevention and parent education to prevent substance use and abuse, and work with area pediatricians to screen and refer adolescents who may need treatment.

Sponsoring Organizations : Framingham Public Schools & Framingham Coalition for the Prevention of Alcohol and Drug Abuse

Hopkinton – The “Be Free” project has created a community coalition to prevent youth substance use, add a research-based prevention curriculum in the middle school, train parents to improve communications skills and family rules regarding teen substance use; train community leaders & parents to recognize the warning signs of substance abuse and create a community public awareness campaign to prevent youth substance abuse.

Sponsoring Organization : Hopkinton Public Schools

Milford/Bellingham – This collaboration between two towns is increasing screening and intervention for youth at-risk, promoting community and parent awareness and action to prevent and reduce youth alcohol and drug use; selecting a research-based prevention curriculum for both middle and high schools. It has also established a community coalition of organizations serving youth – the Juvenile Advocacy Group – which is identifying gaps and resources for health promotion and risk prevention.

Sponsoring Organization : Wayside Youth and Family Support Network

Needham – The Needham ACTS project is implementing a research-based prevention curriculum for high school use, launching a community awareness campaign through parent coffees that has reached 500 parents to strengthen their prevention and intervention skills. In addition, the project is examining school and community policies surrounding youth alcohol and drug use and is implementing recommendations for change.

Sponsoring organization : Needham Public Schools

Wayland – This project is improving the fidelity of the Life Skills prevention curriculum for middle grades, developing a community-wide coalition to address youth substance use, training parents and others who work with adolescents to practice prevention and understand the warning signs of substance abuse, and improving its school-based intervention team and AOD policies.

Sponsoring organization : Wayland Public Schools

In January 2006, five additional communities were funded: Ashland, Holliston, Hopedale, Natick and Medfield. These communities began with a 6-month planning process, informed by the learning of the initial five communities, whose funding ends in June 2008. This assessment phase helped determine specific strategies of these communities:

Ashland – The Decisions at Every Turn project is building a community-based coalition to support a parent outreach and education campaign, use of evidence-based curricula in middle and high school, strengthening school-based intervention for youth who are using and a treatment resource guide for families. The project will also explore court diversion models to pilot.

Holliston – The project’s strategies include increasing youth engagement and alternative activities, parent education and networking, a social marketing campaign and exploring court diversion for youth.

Hopedale – With this funding Hopedale joins Milford and Bellingham’s existing Juvenile Advocacy Group, a robust coalition focusing on preventing and intervening in youth substance abuse and other risk factors. The project is also engaging in new strategies for improved parent outreach and education and in selecting evidence-based curriculum in the schools.

Medfield – Parent outreach, education and networking is a primary focus of this effort, which also includes implementing research-based curriculum in grades 6-12 and building a community task force to prevent youth substance use.

Natick -- Natick will focus on several school initiatives: review of student assistance program, school alcohol and drug policies and substance abuse prevention curriculum for middle and high school to update and improve existing practices. The project will also survey parents and design parent education strategies to increase protective behavior and will engage community leaders through individual meetings, community forums and a web site to raise awareness and increase collaboration among existing groups.

The MetroWest TA Center (MTAC):

The Foundation realized that many local communities were using outdated or ineffective approaches to substance abuse prevention and intervention. The science of prevention/intervention had not reached many local communities due to their small size and lack of personnel to compete for federal funding for evidence-based training & resources. Further, the Foundation saw an opportunity to create, through a technical assistance center, a regional approach to bring the science to local communities.

Education Development Center operates several national resource centers for states and local grantees of federal agencies. One example is the Northeast Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies (NE/CAPT), which provides research and technical assistance and training got 11 northeast states for the past decade. The NE /CAPT is the springboard for the MTAC, as it already had the knowledge, methods and staffing to provide this model as a “mini-CAPT”.

MTAC has three goals:

• Improve the capacity of grantees to plan, implement & sustain evidence-based strategies

• Strengthen knowledge and application of evidence-based prevention and intervention programs in surrounding communities, and

• Create a replicable regional technical assistance model for diffusion of evidence-based prevention/intervention programs

Activities:

• Provide individual technical assistance to community teams

(research >coaching)

• Synthesize & share research with grantees

(E-newsletter, monthly project coordinator training, web site, quarterly seminars)

• Skill-building with local community project staff

(Offer facilitation skills, communications campaigns, environmental strategies, coalition-building)

• Convene various affinity groups in the region to increase knowledge exchange and collaboration

(Examples include police chiefs, school resources officers, treatment providers and school administrators)