The Southfield Community Anti-Drug Coalition’s DFC Project serves youth and young adults in Southfield, Oakland County, MI. Our target is 600 youth in middle school, and high school as well as adults up to 21 years of age during the first year. Thereafter the Coalition is targeting 4,800 youth for the remaining four years of the grant. To accomplish this goal, we have partnered with Southfield Public Schools (SPS) and the Boys and Girls Club to conduct our strategic prevention framework. We have started with our summer program, workshops, and focus groups that emphasize the importance of prevention in a variety of areas, including goal setting, self-efficacy, bullying, drug prevention/avoidance, and keeping the right company.
With the DFC grant we will establish Youth Groups to teach prevention, leadership, as well as to engage and empower youth. The group will host a youth-led Dialogue Day for high school students; they will have the opportunity to choose projects they want to lead in school and in the community; and the opportunity to gain national training at annual CADCA conventions.
Our target area has a high population of students who receive free or reduced lunch. As a School of Choice, SPS serves students from neighboring communities, including Detroit. Some of the clinical characteristics that the school identified is alcohol use, marijuana use, and vaping. We identified that easy access and low perception of risk were the biggest problems in our community when it comes to substance use. Our first goal will address alcohol and our second will address marijuana along with vaping.
SPS is in the top ten percent of schools in MI for suspension rates. In 2010, the gender makeup of the city was 44.7% male and 55.3% female. The city was not always as diverse as it is today. Since the last Census the racial makeup of the city was 70.3% African American, 24.9% White, 0.2% Native American, 1.7% Asian, Hispanic or Latino 1.3%, 0.4% from other races, and 2.4% from two or more races.
Going beyond the education component, we will also establish a prevention referral system in cooperation with our partner Easterseals, to help those struggling with substance abuse receive needed services when they are ready. It is important for the SCADC to be a strong resource for youth and families in the community we serve.