Montgomery County Prevention Coalition - The Montgomery County Prevention Coalition is committed to building comprehensive substance use prevention strategies for all youth across Montgomery County, Ohio. The Coalition is currently a year-five DFC grantee. During our first five years as a DFC grantee, the Coalition has successfully established a culture of trust between Coalition members and partners that allows for shared learning, shared planning, and shared accountability. We have worked collectively to implement strategies focusing on preventing alcohol, marijuana, tobacco, and prescription drug use among youth and, over time, adults. For this application, the Coalition will continue our focus on preventing these same four substances. Substance use rates among seventh through twelfth-grade students continue to be concerning. Nearly one out of ten (9.4%) youth are past 30-day users of alcohol. Six percent of youth report using marijuana in the past 30 days. Of those past 30-day marijuana users, 84% percent report smoking marijuana, while only 3.33% report using edible, and 11.1% are vaping THC. Greater than one out of ten youth, 11.85%, report lifetime use of prescription pain medication without a doctor’s prescription or differently than how a doctor prescribed it. Four percent of youth report smoking cigarettes in the past 30 days; however, 13.35% report using a vape for nicotine during the same timeframe. With 13.35% reporting past 30-day use of a vape for nicotine, nicotine is the highest reported substance used by youth in our county. The Coalition has outlined seven objectives to achieve through this funding opportunity. These include: expand Coalition membership by 10%, or 30 members, to engage underrepresented partners and populations as measured by Coalition meeting sign-in sheets, increase the capacity of 75% of Coalition members to provide evidence-based prevention strategies, as measured by training pre and post evaluations, engage Coalition members in a shared, county-wide comprehensive prevention plan as evidenced by the documented plan and meeting activity outlined in the meeting minutes, decrease past 30-day marijuana use among 7th through 12th graders from 6.62% to 5%, as measured by the Ohio Healthy Youth Environments Survey (OHYES), decrease past 30-day alcohol use among 7th through 12th graders from 9.4% to 7.4%, as measured by the Ohio Healthy Youth Environments Survey, decrease past 30-day use of non-prescribed pharmaceutical opioids among 7th through 12th graders from 3.11% to 2.5%, as measured by the Ohio Healthy Youth Environments Survey, and decrease the percentage of students in 7-12th grade reporting feeling so sad or hopeless almost every day for two weeks or more in a row that they stopped doing some usual activities from 30.62% to 25% as measured by the Ohio Healthy Youth Environments Survey (OHYES). The Coalition will utilize a combination of the Seven Strategies for Community Change to achieve the goals and objectives, emphasizing environmental strategies. The work plan aligns these strategies with the intended objectives to ensure the Coalition is effective and not just busy. Specific actions for each strategy are delegated to the appropriate staff or subcommittee member. The Advisory Committee will utilize the work plan to monitor and guide Coalition activity across subcommittees to better leverage resources and avoid duplication of efforts across groups.
