Step Up Naugy STOP 2024 - Project Abstract: Step Up Naugy (SUN) is the local prevention coalition for the borough of Naugatuck, Connecticut. SUN serves the 31,586 people of Naugatuck, including nearly 4,500 school-age youth. STOP funds will enhance the current Drug-Free Communities project to build capacity and reduce service gaps in alcohol prevention. Youth in grades 7-12 will be targeted under STOP, including sexual, gender, and ethnic minorities. SUN serves the entire Naugatuck community, the racial and ethnic makeup of which is 73% White, 12% Hispanic or Latino/a, 8% Black, 3% Asian, and 4% Other. The STOP program will target youth in 7th-12th grades, aligning with the middle and high school grades in the borough. There are 1,923 students in those grades, who are 43% White, 36% Hispanic or Latino, 13% Black, 2% Asian, and 5% two or more races. Forty eight percent identify as female, 46% identify as male and 6% identify as Transgender or Nonbinary (i.e., gender minorities). Nineteen percent identify as non-heterosexual (i.e., sexual minorities). The STOP project is estimated to serve 100 youth and 500 community members annually, for a total of 1800 people over the three-year project period. SUN will target capacity building, bridging service gaps, and reducing alcohol use amongst youth under STOP. The coalition will use training, outreach, partnerships, and translation of information to build volunteer numbers and educational capacity. The same new partners will be key in identifying and bridging service gaps for underserved individuals. Reducing access, targeting community norms, partnering with intergovernmental agencies, and hosting town halls will be strategies toward reducing youth alcohol use. The first goal of this project is to increase the capacity of SUN to reduce youth alcohol use in Naugatuck. This will be achieved by providing three (3) workshops and/or trainings to coalition members and the community on best practice programming and strategies to prevent alcohol-related harms, as measured by SUN attendance sheets; expand coalition representation by recruiting at least 5 adult and youth members to the coalition from the faith-based sector, civic sector, media sector, and high-risk populations of focus, as measured by Coalition Involvement Agreements; meeting with underserved community groups and youth groups at schools to learn what programming will be most effective and to secure collaboration on joint activities, as documented by SUN Discussion Group summaries; translating prevention materials into Spanish including handouts, surveys, resource materials, social media posts, and website information, as measured by STOP Action Plan Tracking document; and building new relations with local government by successfully negotiating an allocation of revenue from retail cannabis sales to SUN for youth prevention activities, as measured by the STOP Action Plan Tracking document. The second goal of the project is to reduce underage drinking rates amongst Naugatuck youth. This will be achieved by decreasing the percentage of Naugatuck youth in 7th to 12th grade who report they access alcohol from their house without parental permission, by 20%, from 25% to 20%, as measured by the SUN Youth Survey (Search Institute); increasing the number of Naugatuck adults who report that they are very familiar with the Social Host Law, by 25%, from 36% to 45%, as measured by the SUN Community Survey; and decreasing the number of Naugatuck adults who report that drinking alcohol is a normal part of growing up, by 15%, from 44% to 37%, as measured by the SUN Community Survey.
