Sunday, May 11, 2025
5/11/2025
Wahluke Community Coalition - Wahluke Community Coalition’s (WCC) mission: To promote a healthier, drug- and alcohol-free Wahluke through communitywide education and advocacy aimed at preventing youth substance use. Our approach to education and advocacy is made up of multiple, complementary strategies. Under education, WCC continues to increase awareness of our primary substance abuse issues and the prevention and treatment resources in our community. WCC education also builds leadership and prevention skills among WCC members, positive parenting, and youth refusal and life skills. WCC advocacy increases and sustains a high degree of community involvement in the implementation of our action plan. Additionally, our advocacy supports accessing services and ensures Wahluke has the best interest of children, youth, and families in matters of drugs and alcohol. The WCC DFC project targets all residents within the Wahluke School District catchment area including the communities of Mattawa and Desert Aire—collectively referred to as Wahluke. Emphasis is placed on the students and families of Wahluke School District (WSD) which serves 2,487 students—98% of whom identify as Hispanic/Latino. Among the Hispanic student population, 53.4% are English Language Learners and 93.7% are from low-income families. (WA OSPI, 2023-24.) The impact of the activities described in the 12-month action plan and to be continued through years 6 to 10 of the DFC project period will work to enhance protective factors and mitigate exposure to risks in our coordinated substance misuse prevention initiative. The Wahluke Community Coalition has and will continue to positively impact the environmental conditions in which Wahluke youth are born, raised, educated, and recreate to the extent that youth substance misuse is significantly reduced if not eliminated. The Wahluke substance use data profile clearly establishes ALCOHOL and MARIJUANA as the drugs of choice for our youth. For these reasons WCC has devised an action plan that focuses on increasing awareness of the harmful effects of alcohol and marijuana use as well as in providing meaningful opportunities as an alternative to substance use. WCC has adopted the following OUTCOMES in response: 1) Reduce 30-day Alcohol Use among 10th grade students from the 2018 baseline of 19.7% to 18.2% (-1.5) by 2025 as measured by the Washington HYS – Wahluke School District. (2029 goal: 3-point net decrease. Target: 16.7% or lower.) 2) Reduce 30-day Marijuana Use among 10th grade students from the 2018 baseline of 18.1% to 15% (-3) by 2025 as measured by the Washington HYS – Wahluke School District. (2029 goal: 9-point net decrease. Target 9.1% or lower.) To achieve this end, WCC will target middle and high school age youth and their families with the following strategies to be implemented in the first year and sustained through the 5-year project: 1) Securing the infrastructure and capacity to address substance misuse prevention through wide-ranging community collaboration, 2) Improving coalition competency through trainings and education, 3) Increasing awareness of the issues around alcohol and marijuana with multimodal communications, 4) Enhancing parenting skills to buffer exposure to negative influences, 5) Implementing a comprehensive prevention media campaign targeting alcohol and marijuana, 6) Enhancing school-based student prevention clubs with training and activity support, 7) Advocating for school drug and alcohol response policy reviews and updates, 8) Conducting outreach targeting under-resourced, underrepresented Spanish-speaking and migrant communities, and 9) Improving access to prevention resources for parents and their families
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).