Thursday, December 26, 2024
12/26/2024
The 2018 INYS clearly indicates that 10th and 12th grade Porter County students use alcohol, marijuana, and prescription drugs at higher rates than their statewide counterparts. 34.4% of 12th grade students reported using alcohol in the past 30 days compared to 32.2% statewide. 21.6% of 12th grade students reported using marijuana in the past 30 days as compared to only 19.5% of their 8th grade statewide counterparts. Current prescription drug misuse among Porter County youth is startling—6th and 8th grades outpace their state counterparts by huge margins. 4.6% of 6th and 3.5% of 8th grade students at report using prescription drugs to get high in the past 30 days compared to just 2.4% and 2.5% of their peers around the state. It is for these reasons that Hub Coalition Portage (HCP) has selected Alcohol, Marijuana, and Prescription Drugs as the target substances. To put the numbers into perspective: Portage is a rural city; population 37,737—1,474 people per square mile (compared to Indianapolis’ 2,454 per square mile). Although the largest racial group is White (77.6%), the race and ethnicity distributions of Portage are different from the state. Hispanics/Latinos make up 19.2% and 9.5% of the population are African American. The median household income in 2022 was $71,317 and approximately 11.4% of individuals live below poverty. In 2020, approximately 15% of children (under 18 years old) were living in poverty in Portage. The data represents a snapshot of the youth substance use problem in Porter County, Indiana; however, it clearly establishes ALCOHOL, MARIJUANA, and OPIOIDS as the drugs of choice for our youth. For these reasons, HCP has adopted the following OUTCOMES in response: 1) Reduce 30-day Alcohol misuse among 12th students from the current 2018 baseline of 34.4% to 32.5% (-5%) by 2026 as measured by the Indiana Youth Survey (INYS) – Porter County. (2028 goal: 27.5%) 2) Reduce 30-day Marijuana misuse among 12th students from the current 2018 baseline of 21.6% to 20.5% (-5%) by 2026 as measured by the Indiana Youth Survey (INYS) – Porter County. (2028 goal: 17%) 3) Reduce 30-day Prescription Drug misuse among 8th students from the current 2018 baseline of 3.6% to 2.5% (-30%) by 2026 as measured by the Indiana Youth Survey (INYS) – Porter County. (2028 goal: <1%) The Hub Coalition Portage’s DFC project is designed to engage the collective capacity within Portage, align our competencies, and strategically deploy our resources to better position us to serve our mission with proven-effective strategies that 1) inform and support our residents, 2) enhance local assets, and 3) improve the overall context of our community. The MISSION of the HCP is to reduce youth and adult substance misuse by assessing for, promoting through, and educating about effective community-based strategies, programs, and activities. To achieve this end, HCP 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 abuse prevention through wide-ranging community collaboration, 2) Improving coalition competency through trainings and education, 3) Increasing awareness of the issues around alcohol, marijuana, and Rx/opioids 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 communities, and 9) Improving access to prevention resource 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).