The Sunday, June 13, 2010 edition of the Seattle Times includes an opinion piece about bullying prevention by a researcher with the Social Development Research Group. In it, two online resources are listed:
1. the Blueprints for Violence Prevention project,
2. the Communities That Care prevention system.
Why am I listing these on a blog about youth substance use prevention? Because programs listed on the Blueprints website and Communities That Care (CTC) are also used for substance abuse prevention. In fact, the CTC model is similar to the Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) that most anti-drug coalitions use.
Showing posts with label Communities That Care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Communities That Care. Show all posts
Coalitions preventing underage drinking
According to Join Together, "An ongoing evaluation of the Communities That Care prevention model found that communities that implement the program had significantly lower rates of binge drinking than similar areas nearby, according to researchers at the University of Washington."
This is exciting news for several reasons, the primary one being that the Communities That Care (CTC) model is very similar to the Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF), the model used by the Prevention Works In Seattle coalition in NE Seattle.
In the Join Together article, David Hawkins from the University of Washington's Social Development Research Group is quoted, "This study shows we can prevent adolescent risk behaviors community wide by using this system. What makes this system different from other prevention efforts is that it provides community coalitions with scientifically based tools with which to make decisions based on what is important to each town. The key is empowering each community to make scientifically grounded decisions about what programs thy need. That builds ownership."
What this study shows is that when communities come together to address an issue that is putting their children at risk, in our case at risk for problems associated with underage drinking, and they are given the tools to assess the problem and then implement evidence-based prevention programs to meet their specific needs, they can be successful. Since our community is following a model similar to CTC, this gives great hope to our coalition that our prevention efforts will reduce our high underage drinking rates.
Here are a few links about the CTC study and it success:
Prevention Town Hall Meeting -- a video archive from September 9 in which David Hawkins talks about CTC
Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine
Maine Town Dramatically Cuts Drug Use (ABC News)
Coalition progress exceeds Washington's expectations (Prevention Action)
This is exciting news for several reasons, the primary one being that the Communities That Care (CTC) model is very similar to the Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF), the model used by the Prevention Works In Seattle coalition in NE Seattle.
In the Join Together article, David Hawkins from the University of Washington's Social Development Research Group is quoted, "This study shows we can prevent adolescent risk behaviors community wide by using this system. What makes this system different from other prevention efforts is that it provides community coalitions with scientifically based tools with which to make decisions based on what is important to each town. The key is empowering each community to make scientifically grounded decisions about what programs thy need. That builds ownership."
What this study shows is that when communities come together to address an issue that is putting their children at risk, in our case at risk for problems associated with underage drinking, and they are given the tools to assess the problem and then implement evidence-based prevention programs to meet their specific needs, they can be successful. Since our community is following a model similar to CTC, this gives great hope to our coalition that our prevention efforts will reduce our high underage drinking rates.
Here are a few links about the CTC study and it success:
Prevention Town Hall Meeting -- a video archive from September 9 in which David Hawkins talks about CTC
Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine
Maine Town Dramatically Cuts Drug Use (ABC News)
Coalition progress exceeds Washington's expectations (Prevention Action)
Communities That Care
Communities That Care (CTC) now has its own Wikipedia page. CTC is a coalition-based prevention operating system that uses a public health approach to prevent youth problem behaviors such as violence, delinquency, school drop out and substance abuse. This model is similar to the one used by the NE Seattle Coalition to Prevent Underage Drinking. Like the coalition, CTC's main strategy focuses on strengthening protective factors that can buffer young people from problem behaviors and promote positive youth development. We also work to reduce risk factors.
CTC was developed by the Social Development Research Group at the University of Washington's School of Social Work.
CTC was developed by the Social Development Research Group at the University of Washington's School of Social Work.
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