Teen Action Council Drug-Free Communities Support Program - The proposed Drug-Free Communities Support Program (DFC) project is to increase community collaboration to build the capacity and infrastructure necessary to create sustainable community-level change and reduce youth substance use related to alcohol and marijuana. The proposed project will take place in Wilkes County, North Carolina. For the purpose of this project, the Teen Action Council will be targeting the three municipalities of North Wilkesboro, Ronda, and Wilkesboro as well as the five high schools in Wilkes County. The Teen Action Council is a youth-led, adult-guided group of youth that strives to create youth connections, provide community outreach, and support youth advocacy. The youth involved in the Teen Action Council are dedicated to educating their peers in hopes to prevent substance misuse and mental health challenges. They accomplish this by giving youth a voice, providing youth an outlet, and showing youth their reason. Our community has been plagued with a history of substance use from moonshine to tobacco, to marijuana, to methamphetamine, to prescription opioids and heroin, to wineries and distilleries. Given this history, increasing the capacity and infrastructure of our county to tackle youth substance use is paramount to the overall health of our county. Populations of focus for the proposed project are youth, parents/caregivers, and community stakeholders. The coalition will place a special emphasis on youth who are adversely affected by social, geographic, economic, and racial/ethnic factors such as poverty, living in a rural location, and the Hispanic community. The proposed project will serve communities within Wilkes with its two main goals: increase community collaboration and reduce youth substance use related to alcohol and marijuana. Progress towards goals will be measured by an increase in membership and participation; a decrease in past 30-day marijuana use, increase in peer and parental disapproval for both substances, increased perception of harm for both substances, and a decrease in the percentage of youth who report getting alcohol from an adult or older sibling. Through DFC funding, the Teen Action Council and the Adult Advisory Committee will work to further strengthen capacity and collaboration among adults and key stakeholders, as strong partnerships will be vital to the success of the project. Utilizing the most effective public health prevention strategies focused on community collaboration and environmental change including the Strategic Prevention Framework and CADCA’s Seven Strategies for Community-Level Change, the Teen Action Council will provide evidence-based initiatives to address youth substance use related to alcohol and marijuana use. The Project Director and Project Coordinator will support the Teen Action Council in the implementation of the 12-Month Action Plan, will provide leadership and substance use prevention training opportunities, and will lead data collection and evaluation efforts. The Teen Action Council will engage youth through outreach in the five public high schools as well as through the homeschool community and the faith community.
