Partners for Prevention - Renville and Yellow Medicine County Initiative - Partners for Prevention-Renville and Yellow Medicine (PFP-RYM) is a community-based capacity-building initiative that will strengthen youth substance use prevention across rural Renville and Yellow Medicine Counties in west-central Minnesota. Using SAMHSA's Strategic Prevention Framework and the Communities That Care framework, PACT for Families Collaborative will strengthen prevention infrastructure, expand youth leadership, improve local behavioral health data collection, and increase implementation of evidence-based prevention strategies through coordinated community partnerships. The project will build sustainable prevention capacity that improves youth behavioral health outcomes and reduces substance use. The proposed project will serve the rural counties of Renville and Yellow Medicine, Minnesota, a two-county catchment area of 24,009 residents. The initiative addresses the need to strengthen regional prevention capacity following completion of PACT's previous Strategic Prevention Framework–Partnerships for Success project. Current capacity limitations include insufficient regional coordination, inconsistent youth behavioral health data collection, limited prevention infrastructure, and the need to expand implementation of evidence-based prevention strategies through coordinated school and community partnerships. The primary population of focus is youth ages 9–20 and their families. Capacity-building activities will also engage schools, Public Health agencies, behavioral health providers, youth-serving organizations, prevention coalitions, parents, youth leaders, and other community stakeholders. The initiative will prioritize youth experiencing behavioral health risk factors, including adverse childhood experiences and increased vulnerability to substance use, while remaining open to all youth and families residing within the catchment area. Capacity-building strategies include completing community needs and readiness assessments; developing a Logic Model, Evaluation Plan, Implementation Plan, and Sustainability Plan; strengthening participation in the Minnesota Student Survey and PACT SHARE Survey; establishing a Regional Youth Advisory Council and Sustainability Committee; implementing evidence-based prevention strategies; strengthening cross-sector collaboration; and supporting long-term sustainability through continuous quality improvement. Project goals are to: (1) establish a comprehensive, data-driven prevention system through the Strategic Prevention Framework; (2) strengthen community prevention capacity by expanding evidence-based prevention strategies, youth leadership, school-community partnerships, and local behavioral health data collection; and (3) strengthen long-term sustainability through shared leadership and implementation of a Sustainability Plan. Measurable objectives include increasing participation in youth behavioral health surveys, supporting implementation of evidence-based prevention education in participating school districts, establishing a Regional Youth Advisory Council and Sustainability Committee, increasing shared leadership of prevention initiatives, and annually evaluating project outcomes to strengthen community prevention capacity, support data-driven decision making, and improve youth behavioral health outcomes.
