Planet Youth Coalition: Strengthening Partnerships and Reducing Substance Abuse in the 19809 Zip Code - The purpose of the project is to reduce substance abuse among youth and strengthen prevention partnerships in the local community by implementing the Seven Strategies for Community Level Change including providing activities that respond to identified risk factors linked to increased substance abuse among community youth. The strategies take into consideration both the individual and the contextual environment to achieve community-level change. Outcomes PYC aims for are to: A) increase active coalition membership by 5% per year, B) decrease current alcohol use by 2% in first year with a total of 10% by year five, among youth ages 12 to 18, and C) decrease by 2% in first year with a total of 10% by year five the numbers of high school youth who have ever used diverted prescription drugs. Underage alcohol consumption and the misuse of opioids became focus areas by both consensus and a review of the data, especially derived from the University of Delaware Center for Drug and Health Studies. The target population for the PYC is youth aged 12-18 years of age from the the 19809 area code. This area contains 1,568 minors ages 10 to 19. 19809 residents are 75% white, 18% Black or African-American, 4% Asian, and 3.3% biracial/other race. 28% of its households contain children; 19% are headed by single guardians; and 900 receive less than $25,000 in annual income. Over 1,200 residents earn less than $10,000 a year. 19809 features higher rates of youth alcohol use than in New Castle County overall, and it lacks youth alcohol and other abuse prevention activities that are, by contrast, offered in concentration within Wilmington city limits. Bellevue Community Center (BCC), location of PYC headquarters is the only community center located in this area, and currently serves approximately 100 youth ages 9-20 each year in its after-school programs. In New Castle County as a whole, health disparities are linked to its status as a hotspot for heroin and opioid trafficking, as well as its lack of a community-wide prevention intervention strategy. Recent studies have also shown that Delaware’s rate of opioid overdose doubled from 2015 to 2018, its rate of overdose death was 5th highest in the 50 states in 2017, and that in 2018, there were 60.6 opioid prescriptions in Delaware per hundred residents. Community collaboration is critical as we reduce youth substance abuse. The program intends to increase community collaboration and reduce youth substance abuse. The first goal will be accomplished by increasing outreach to prospective coalition partners, adding community partnerships, and holding additional events and planning sessions with stakeholders. The second goal will be attained by gathering and providing information to youth and community on substance abuse through events, activities, handouts, PSAs contests and media outreach, enhancing skills of both PYC and community youth through professional trainings, providing support to youth and the community through alternative activities, reducing barriers to treatment with referrals to treatment programs, changing consequences by incentivizing positive behaviors and rewarding vendor law compliance, changing physical design by creating a community message board and strategically placing posters in public areas with high visibility, and informing the modification of public policy through a committee created with enthusiastic representation from a local representative.
