Friday, April 26, 2024
4/26/2024
The Strategic Prevention Framework Partnerships for Success (SPF-PFS) Community of Practice in Southeastern Ohio is an innovative way of empowering two rural, Appalachian communities to build their local prevention infrastructure. Through a communities of practice model, the two communities will engage in a learning environment where they not only learn technical knowledge and skills, but will also build a strong, supportive network. In a community of practice (COP) environment, the prevailing narrative is "we rise by lifting each other," as it is the shared and accumulated knowledge among the group that promotes communities to undertake larger and more complex activities. As a COP, the coalitions will complete the SPF in stages; with the end result being that each community will develop a data-driven, comprehensive plan to reduce underage drinking that utilizes evidence-based strategies that are culturally relevant and sustainable. This approach includes faculty and professional staff from Ohio University's Voinovich School of Leadership and Public Affairs (OU-VS), researchers from the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE), and project directors from 2 local community organizations. Each community has an existing coalition to serve as a backbone organization for the project. PIRE and OU-VS will support the local coalitions with wrap-around training, technical assistance, and evaluation support. 2017 Census estimates show Adams and Lawrence Counties comprise 88,983 residents, of whom 22,080 are between the ages of 5 and 24. Annually, the project will serve 9,152 people and over the course of the five years will serve 13,416 people. Both counties suffer from high levels of systemic poverty and low median incomes relative to the state. The Appalachian Regional Commission identified all of Adams County and portions of Lawrence County as economically distressed. This proposal includes four goals: (1) increase the capacity of two rural, Appalachian Ohio communities to use the SPF to identify and select comprehensive strategies to reduce underage drinking among young people ages 9 to 20; (2) decrease underage drinking among young people ages 9 to 20 by implementing evidence-based programs within the collaborating school districts and the community to address factors that may lead to initial use; (3) increase the capacity of two rural, Appalachian Ohio communities to collect and report community-level data to evaluate progress toward reducing underage drinking among young people ages 9 to 20; and (4) develop a mechanism for documenting program tools, materials, and successes/lessons learned to enhance the wide dissemination and adoption of best practices in substance abuse prevention. Key objectives to achieve these goals include, but are not limited to: completing needs assessments; developing data-driven strategic plans; implementing a comprehensive prevention approach, that includes a mix of evidence based-culturally relevant, and sustainable programs, policies, and/or practices to reduce underage drinking among young people ages 9-20.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
