Naugatuck is a suburban community served by the Step Up Naugy (SUN) Prevention Coalition. Funding from the Drug-Free Communities (DFC) program will assist in implementing substance-free programming, drug prevention activities, and community capacity building. SUN aims to build community cohesion and reduce youth substance misuse. SUN is a program at Naugatuck Youth Services (NYS), which benefits both parties by being able to share resources and increase outreach. Youth are an integral part of the SUN mission, and NYS promotes youth engagement, involvement, and leadership with SUN and provides substance-free facilities where meetings and programs occur. To reach the desired goals, SUN will implement the DFC best practices of 7 Strategies for Community Change: share information, enhance skills, provide support, enhance access and reduce barriers, change consequences, change the environment, and educate on modifying or changing policies.
To build community capacity, SUN constantly recruits and welcomes new adult and youth members to the coalition, and participates in events with community partners to increase awareness of the coalition’s work in the community. The coalition encourages and supports educational opportunities for parents, youth, and community members, and develops leadership in project-based groups with members and community partners. By continually offering relevant trainings and activities tailored to the needs of parents, youth, and others, the coalition finds common ground and goal alignment with other individuals and organizations, and increases the community’s ability to keep all of its young people safe, healthy, and drug-free.
Reducing youth substance use is a main priority of SUN, with a focus on alcohol, marijuana, and prescription drug misuse. Naugatuck youth report that gaining access to alcohol and marijuana is easy for them, and community members report that partaking in alcohol and marijuana is perceived as a normal part of growing up. Youth are also reporting that they believe it is okay to take prescriptions that do not belong to them, so long as it helps them cope with stressors in their lives.
Strong community collaborations with partners including Naugatuck Public Schools, the Naugatuck Police Department, the Parent Leadership Training Institute, the YMCA, the mayor’s office, local banks and retailers, churches, and healthcare providers, will integrate prevention further into the community. By focusing on reducing youth access to substances and educating youth, parents, and community members on the dangers of substance misuse, SUN will reduce youth substance use. Coalition members - adults and youth - stand as role models for others to provide support to one another and recognize that they do not need to misuse substances to have fun, be successful, or cope with day-to-day stressors.
In order to ensure SUN’s work stands as successful and makes its intended impact, evaluation strategies aligning with prevention best practices will be used. SUN’s skilled evaluator uses the Community Based Participatory Research Model (CBPR), which includes numbers from school surveys on youth health outcomes and interviews with key members of the community to gauge SUN’s effectiveness. The coalition shares successes, plans, and information with the community through their website, press releases in the local news, and youth-led social media campaigns.