Orange Partnerships for Success to Reduce and Prevent Youth Substance Use - Orange Partnership for Success (OPS) project will focus on reducing and preventing the onset of youth use of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS), tobacco and cannabis products through community collaboration in Orange County NC. Using strategic prevention framework and environmental strategies. reduction and cessation resources, student education and youth empowerment, OP will work to strengthen protective factors and reduce risk among middle and high school students. Through comprehensive data collection, policy advocacy, merchant education, access to intervention and cessation resources, student education and youth empowerment, OP will work to strengthen protective factors and reduce risk among middle and high school students. The area of focus includes the diverse communities that make up Orange County - the more affluent, urban areas of Chapel Hill-Carrboro and the small town of Hillsborough, which is the county seat, along with the seven townships in the rural areas. Orange County, NC has a population of 148,476 with 21% of the population between the ages 5 and 19. OP's priority population is middle and high school students within Orange County's two school districts, Orange County School (OCS) and Chapel Hill-Carrboro City School (CHCCS). Between the two school districts there are 19 elementary schools, 9 middle schools and 8 high schools, serving almost 20,000 students. According to the NC Youth Tobacco Survey, between 2011 and 2019, past 30-day use of tobacco increased 1129% among NC high school students. This increase in use operates in conjunction with a decrease in individual perceptions of harm. Using CADCA's seven strategies for community change, there will be a variety of strategies and interventions implemented over the course of the project. Strategies include reducing youth access by conducting regular tobacco purchase surveys, providing education to merchants who fail, and continuing to expand the youth prevention Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention Team (ADAPT) presence in middle and high schools. ADAPT not only increases students' awareness of the risks of substance use, the program empowers them to educate peers through peer-to-peer education and advocacy. Additionally, Orange Partnership will advocate for best practices in student data collection and student discipline referrals, as well as provide comprehensive guides to resources available for students using tobacco and cannabis products. Orange Partnership proposes to prevent youth substance use by increasing the collection and reporting of community-level data on nicotine and cannabis related products, decreasing youth access through retailers to ENDS, nicotine and cannabis products, increasing the number of students who are aware of harms related to tobacco, cannabis and vapes, increasing the number of students who use tobacco, cannabis or vapes referred to appropriate interventions and services. OP will measure progress towards these goals using outcome measures such as the number of tobacco purchase surveys, environmental scans and merchant education training. The effectiveness of these measures will be measured through youth risk behavior surveys, community surveys, the number of students involved in youth prevention programs, the number of retailers receiving merchant education, the number of training attendees and peer education recipients. Through this project, we anticipate serving 2705, with an anticipated annual reach of 4,830,000 media impressions. The expected reach of 13,525 will be served over the project period.
