Colorado SPF PFS Northwest Project - The Colorado Strategic Prevention Framework, Partnership for Success (SPF-PFS) Northwest project will build upon the state’s experience and established SPF-based prevention infrastructure to address the state and region through local communities for substance misuse prevention priority of alcohol by focusing on risk and protective factors and collective impact. The geographic catchment area is the far northwest corner of Colorado, which includes Jackson, Moffat, Rio Blanco and Routt counties. This rural area has deep western heritage and known for its diverse natural resources. Youth ages 10-19 makeup 13.3% of the NW Colorado population, and are the focus for this project. The Northwest (NW) Colorado region has indicators suggesting high levels of substance misuse among youth and a lack of overall prevention infrastructure support for local government and community organizations to address these concerns. Overall, self-reported use of substances by youth is higher in NW Colorado than state-level estimates, but the data on drinking any alcohol (34.4% vs. 23.6% statewide) and binge drinking (20% vs. 12.5% statewide) in the last 30 days are particularly striking for the NW region. Moreover, the Colorado Violent Death Reporting system data aggregated over five years (2017-2021) demonstrate the relationship between onset of alcohol misuse and suicide death and the need to focus on prevention. For youth ages 10-18 in Colorado, 11.9% of suicide decedents had a problem with alcohol and toxicology reports indicate that alcohol was present in 11.7% of the deaths. Working with NW Colorado, the state and region will have a significant impact on alcohol misuse among youth by achieving two primary goals: 1) To strengthen capacity and infrastructure at the regional and community levels to support the prevention of alcohol misuse among youth, including capacity and infrastructure to address behavioral health disparities and deliver evidence-based programs and promising approaches that build emotional health and thereby prevent the onset of symptoms and complications from alcohol use and promote mental health 2) To reduce risk factors and increase protective factors that may contribute to or limit the progression for alcohol misuse through evidence-based prevention strategies and programs.
