The goals of the Kosciusko Drug Free coalition are to establish and strengthen community collaboration in support of local efforts to prevent youth substance abuse. - Project Abstract Alcohol and tobacco use are local public health concerns in rural Kosciusko County, (population: 80,240; 2020) in north-eastern Indiana. The county is a major tourism destination best known for its “lake culture.” An estimated 20 percent of Kosciusko County’s adult population smoke, higher than both national and state rates (Indiana Department of Health, 2021). There are 159 alcohol outlets in Kosciusko County; equivalent to a rate of 20.1 outlets per 10,000 people compared to 18.2 for the state (Indiana Prevention Resource Center, 2020). Current trends among Kosciusko youth raise concerns that the cycle will not be broken with this generation: Teens’ survey responses to core measures on perception of harm, as well as parental and peer disapproval, are lower than state rates among 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students (Indiana Youth Survey, 2020). The mission of Kosciusko Drug Free Coalition (KDFC) is “To Build Hope and Eliminate Substance Use Among Youth” (KDFC Strategic Plan, 2017). The coalition has been staff-led since its inception in 2013, reaching a total of 8,152 children with direct prevention programs delivered primarily in schools over the past six years. KDFC is the only primary prevention provider in the county, the result of a state-funded grant to the organization Kosciusko Cares through its fiscal agent, the Otis R. Bowen Center for Human Services (Bowen Center). As Indiana’s largest Community Mental Health Center, the Bowen Center will serve as fiscal agent to KDFC and its Drug-Free-Communities Support Program award. The 554-square mile Kosciusko County covers 21 zip codes; the most populated including Warsaw (population: 15,202); followed by Winona Lake, Syracuse, Milford, North Webster, and Pierceton (between 5,000 and 1,000). The county’s four public school districts (Warsaw, Wawasee, Tippecanoe Valley, and Whitco) and their 23 schools Pre-K through 12th grade educate approximately 12,700 children (2021/22). To tackle local alcohol- and tobacco-related health disparities, the coalition will recruit prevention advocates from all ages, but specifically youth, to develop a pipeline for succession and to generate excitement among teens to be community leaders. Only then can KDFC achieve its twin goals to, first, reach more families with timely and culturally-appropriate education, training, and service provision targeting positive youth development and, second, sustain a mix of environmental strategies and programs beyond a single funding stream. KDFC is currently made up of adults representing business, media, education, law enforcement, social services, youth-serving organizations, parents, government, healthcare, behavioral health, religious, and civic organizations. The Drug-Free Communities Support Program will effect immediate capacity-building in the community led by KDFC’s 12 sector representatives who will model facilitative leadership for consensus-style governance and implement environmental strategies to prevent substance misuse among Kosciusko teenagers into their adulthood and reduce drug-related overdoses over the next 10 years. The vision of KDFC is to end youth experimenting with the two most prevalent gateway drugs in the county, alcohol and tobacco. The way forward for KDFC and its coalition partners is championing best practices in prevention science and advocating for a public health model of prevention. The first outcome of Drug-Free Communities Support Program funding is to raise public awareness about environmental prevention strategies for training, outreach, and networking by increasing the number of stakeholder collaborations 20 percent annually over KDFC’s membership baseline. The second outcome is a 1.25 - 2.5% reduction in youth alcohol and tobacco use over the next five years. The coalition will develop a sustainability plan to consider pursuing a 501(c)3 status after September 29, 2027.
