River Cities Drug Free Alliance (RCDFA) - River Cities Drug Free Alliance The River Cities Drug Free Alliance (RCDFA) aims to prevent youth substance use in Campbell County, Kentucky, with a focus on the northern riverfront cities including Newport, Bellevue, Dayton, Fort Thomas, and Southgate. Based on local data highlighting rising rates of underage alcohol, marijuana, and nicotine use, RCDFA will implement a comprehensive, evidence informed prevention initiative over five years. The project is grounded in the Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) and engages all twelve community sectors, including youth, parents, schools, law enforcement, and healthcare providers. Key strategies include expanding coalition membership and leadership capacity, launching a Youth Advisory Council, and providing quarterly leadership development for coalition members. Prevention efforts will focus on providing education through social media, newsletters, and community events; enhancing youth refusal skills through interactive workshops like "Escape the Pressure"; supporting school-based prevention programs; and promoting safe, drug-free community activities. Evidence-based programs like the SPORT Prevention Plus Wellness curriculum will be delivered to middle school students. Environmental and policy changes will also be pursued, such as promoting responsible alcohol service at community events, advocating for smoke-free environments, improving school disciplinary responses to substance use, and distributing multilingual prevention materials to broaden access. The expected outcomes align with the Drug-Free Communities (DFC) goals: (1) enhance and strengthen community collaboration to prevent youth substance use, and (2) reduce youth substance use rates over time. Specific short-term objectives include increasing community perception of risk of substance use behaviors. Intermediate-term objectives include increasing community perception of peer disapproval of substance use behaviors. Long-term outcomes target measurable reductions in 30-day use rates for alcohol, marijuana, and nicotine among youth by 2031. Through these efforts, RCDFA seeks to create sustainable community-level changes that build a safer, healthier environment for the youth of the River Cities.
