Taking on the task of organizing and coordinating the development of your district's alcohol prevention plan can be overwhelming at first glance. But, with our help and some powerful tools developed for the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP), an agency within the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), you'll find all the pieces fall into place quickly. There are five components to successful prevention planning:

• Assessment - determining your prevention needs
• Capacity - improving your capabilities
• Planning - developing a strategic plan
• Implementation and Sustainability- putting your plan into action and sustaining it
• Evaluation - documenting the outcomes of your work

Today we'll take a closer look at each of these components and some tools that will help you develop a successful program to reduce underage drinking.

Assessment Stage

Do you have a current needs assessment that gives you information on underage drinking in your community? If so, you're ready to go on to Building Capacity. Otherwise, your first step is to conduct a needs assessment. The better you understand your community and the more complete your data collection is, the more likely your prevention project will be successful. A comprehensive needs assessment includes the following:

• Collection and analysis of data
• Survey information
• Focus or discussion groups
• A public policy review
• A review of current programs, activities and resources (NHTSA Community How to Guide, 2001).

Appendix 1 of Community How to Guide on Needs Assessment and Strategic Planning has several examples of survey materials and data checklists that will help you conduct your needs assessment. Once you complete your needs assessment, you will be able to identify your target audience and the risk and protective factors your plan will focus on.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has identified a set of prevention principles that impact underage drinking when incorporated into prevention planning. These 16 principles "have emerged from research studies on the origins of drug abuse behaviors and the common elements found in research on effective prevention programs (Preventing Drug Use among Children and Adolescents, NIDA 2003).

Build the Capacity to Make a Difference

In its broadest terms, capacity means having the knowledge and training, the staff, and the funding necessary to get the job done (Osher, p.6). One of the first steps in capacity building is forming your school-wide team.

Whenever possible, work with existing teams. Integrate program elements that are not part of the current team's plan: student support, student mental health, school safety, or family involvement (Osher et al., p.14). However, you may need to establish a new team if there is no functioning team in your system.

Selecting Team Members
Knowledge, perspective, technical skills, personal skills, and legitimacy are the five criteria you need to build into your team. Your team should be made up of members who are:

• Knowledgeable about your community, school safety, student support, mental health, and school reform (Osher et al., p. 15).
• Representative of all segments of your community. Think of the political makeup of your group. "Who are the sanctioned leaders, the power brokers, the persuaders, the dealmakers, the peacemakers, and the gatekeepers for support and resources?" Be sure your team includes parents, teachers, students, administrators, clergy, and so on (Osher et al., p. 16).
• Equipped with the technical skills to get the job done. "Who has skills in teaming, facilitation, and evaluation? Who is an effective communicator?" (p.16)
• Respected by the community for who they are. "Who is important, given the culture, history, and traditions of your school and community? Who . . . can garner support for your team and the plan?" (Osher et al., pp.14-16).

As part of the effort to represent the entire community on the team, be aware of other agencies and organizations that share common goals with you and also work with youths. Safe, Supportive, and Successful Schools (Osher et al., pp. 16-17) recommends that you include several of these organizations on your team:

• Local community anti-drug coalitions
• Youth centers
• Community-based organizations
• County recreation programs
• Universities and colleges
• Businesses
• Religious leaders and organizations
• Community mental health and health agencies
• Social service agencies
• Community police, juvenile justice, and the courts
• Parent groups, including PTAs, PTOs, and other groups
• Civil rights and advocacy organizations
• Foundations

Develop a Strategic Plan

The strategic plan is the vehicle for success. Once a needs assessment is complete, the next step in developing a comprehensive prevention program is to bring people together and agree on appropriate solutions. The planning process requires three steps:

• An examination of the needs assessment to determine the nature and extent of the underage drinking problem

• A review of alternative courses of action available to meet identified needs

• An allocation of resources to achieve solutions

During the strategic planning process, team members will define goals, identify measurable objectives and develop action steps to reach these goals and objectives (Guide 2, NHTSA, 2001). Click here to read a set of sample questions your strategic plan should address.

Implementation

Implementing your program involves much more than simply carrying out its components. Your strategic plan becomes the action plan that will guide your program development from this point on. It is another planning tool that establishes the initial direction and clarity of vision for the implementation group (Implement and Assess Programs, SAMSHA, 2001). "Planning helps increase the effectiveness of your effort by enabling you to focus energy, ensure that staff and other stakeholders are working toward the same goals, and assess and adjust programmatic direction, if needed. In short, planning is a structured effort to shape and guide your prevention efforts" (Implement and Assess Programs, p. 9).

Your primary goal now is to raise public awareness of underage drinking in your community and motivate the public to change those community norms that may encourage it. Communication is the key here. You need to determine your message and deliver it in an effective way to move the community to action. "The news media can be a critical partner in your effort to raise public awareness of underage drinking. . . .Developing a positive, on-going relationship with reporters who are interested in alcohol- or health-related events and information can be vitally important to your events, organization, and network" (Underage Drinking Prevention Action Guide and Planner, 2001). Start Talking Before They Start Drinking, a new public service ad campaign designed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in partnership with the Ad Council, provides you with a wealth of information and materials about the short- and long-term consequences of underage drinking; tips for parents on initiating conversations about alcohol; and a brochure created for the campaign.

But there's more to implementation than just spreading the word. The planning team has to collaborate with other agencies and programs, ensure that adequate training is available, identify resistance and develop strategies to overcome it, and document progress (Online: Middle School Coordinators as Change Agents).

Evaluation

Evaluation is a necessary step in any effective prevention program. Through evaluations, you can figure out what is working, what is not working, and why. Effective "evaluation will keep your focus on authentic goals and objectives, enabling you to select appropriate interventions that — when properly implemented, measured, and evaluated — will lead to behavioral change and, ultimately, substance abuse prevention and/or reduction" (Pathways to Effective Programs and Positive Outcomes, SAMHSA 2003).

SAMSHA outlines these steps for evaluation:

• Report Immediate and Intermediate Outcomes
  • Assemble immediate outcomes for final report
  • Assemble intermediate outcomes for final report
• Outline Process Measures
  • Assemble action plan data relative to process measures
• Measure Long-term Outcomes
  • Document change(s) compared to baseline measures of general substance abuse problem
  • Determine program sustainability and follow-up actions
  • Produce final report and share findings
• Communicate Outcomes to Key Stakeholders
• Re-Measure Long-term Outcomes
  • Re-measure outcomes at 12 and 18 months if possible
  • Supplement your report to the community with these longer-term outcomes

(SAMHSA, Chapter 5, Pathways to Effective Programs and Positive Outcomes)

The Western Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) has also developed an extensive "how-to" guide to planning and implementing an evaluation of your prevention program. There are 7 major sections:

• What is Evaluation & Why Do It?
• Using a Logic Model for Evaluation Planning
• How to Build Your Program Logic Model
• How to Plan Your Evaluation
• Evaluating Your Program Using the Logic Model
• Analyzing, Using, and Interpreting Evaluation Information Implementing the Evaluation

Within each section you will find worksheets, tools, and examples of how to conduct user-friendly evaluations of substance abuse prevention programs using the risk and protective factors model.

Sustainability

Table 1 (see pp. 5-8) of Building capacity and sustainable prevention innovations: a sustainability planning model gives you the specific factors and objectives that make up a sustainability plan. There are two goals: to continue to build, support and strengthen infrastructure capacity (organizational, community, state, or federal) to ensure an adaptive prevention system that is receptive to change; to implement sustainable innovations that venefit diverse stakeholders for an extended period of time (p. 139-142). This planning tool lists the specific factors, objectives, and actions that need to be in place for your plan to be successful. It also lists specific criteria that indicate the program's "readiness" to succeed.

The sustainability action steps are illustrated here as a five-step process. It's important to remember that sustainability works as an ongoing cyclical process rather than a one-time sequential stage process. (Johnson et. al., 2004).

The Western CAPT is currently developing a Sustainability Tool Kit. This tool kit will be used by specially trained prevention specialists who will work with other prevention specialists to implement and sustain prevention innovations.

Online Resources

If you like to work online, the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) has developed an that will help you assess your prevention needs and determine the appropriate focus of your prevention project in order to reduce risks and increase protective factors.

Once you create your profile, start with the Prevention Readiness Tool. Answer these questions to get an assessment of your preparedness to begin prevention work. Completing this survey will take several minutes. Don't be alarmed if your response to many of the questions is "no" or "don't know." All of that is factored into the analysis and subsequent "road map." The road map is stored under your login and can be accessed whenever you need to refer to it to continue your planning. As you go through the road map, you'll be able to build a timeline and begin an organized approach to your task. The road map also links you to additional resources, both in print format or online, for each step in the process. You can also use other tools and resources with which you're already familiar as you complete each step.

Here's a sample road map to give you a preview of what you'll see after you complete the survey for your community.

References for Day 4 materials:

Bonnie, Richard J. (2003). Reducing Underage Drinking. Statement to the Subcommittee on Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services, Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, U.S. Senate. Available: http://www.alcoholfreechildren.org/en/emplibrary/
bonnie_statement.doc

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (1999). Framework for program evaluation in public health. Available: www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr4811a1.htm

Johnson, K., Hays, C., Center, H., and Daley, C. (2004). Building capacity and sustainable prevention innovations: a sustainability planning model. Evaluation and Program Planning 27, 135–149. Available: http://captus.samhsa.gov//western/news/events/documents/audio-conf-Published-Version.pdf
audio-conf-Published-Version.pdf

Jones-Webb, R., Toomey, T.L., Short, B., Murray, D.M., Wagenaar, A., and Wolfson, M. (1997). Relationships among alcohol availability, drinking location, alcohol consumption, and drinking problems in adolescents. Substance Use and Misuse, 32, 1261-1285.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). (2003). Traffic Safety Facts 2003. Available: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pdf/nrd-30/
NCSA/TSF2003/809774.pdf

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). (2005). Community how to guide on public policy. Available:
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/alcohol/
Community%20Guides%20HTML/Book6_PublicPolicy.html

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). (2001). Community how to guide on law enforcement. Available: http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/alcohol/
Community%20Guides%20HTML/Book5_Enforcement.html

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). (2001). Community how to guide needs assessment and strategic planning. Available:
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/alcohol/
Community%20Guides%20HTML/Book2_NeedsAssess.html

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). (n.d.). Sentencing and dispositions of youth dui and other alcohol offenses: A guide for judges and prosecutors. Available:
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/alcohol/youthdui/index.html

Osher, David, Dwyer, Kevin, & Jackson, Stephanie. (2004). Safe, Supportive, and Successful Schools Step by Step. Colorado: Sopris West.

Preusser, D.F., Ulmer, R.G., and Preusser, C.W. (1993). Enforcement of Underage Impaired-Driving Laws. DOT HS 807 920. Washington, DC.: Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Schulenberg, J., O'Malley, P., Bachman, J., Wadsworth, K., and Johnston, L. (1996). Getting drunk growing up: Trajectories of frequent binge drinking during the transition to young adulthood. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 57, 289-304.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. (2003). Chapter 4: Implement and Assess Programs. Pathways to Effective Programs and Positive Outcomes. Rockville, MD: Author. Available:
http://captus.samhsa.gov/southwest/resources/
documents/Pathways_8-03.pdf

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. (2003). Chapter 5: Complete an Evaluation. Pathways to Effective Programs and Positive Outcomes. Rockville, MD: Author. Available:
http://captus.samhsa.gov/southwest/resources/
documents/Pathways_8-03.pdf

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. (2001). Guide to science-based practices. Principles of substance abuse prevention. Rockville, MD: Author. Available: http://modelprograms.samhsa.gov/pdfs/pubs_Guide.pdf

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking (ICCPUD). (2005). Start talking before they start drinking. Available: http://www.stopalcoholabuse.gov/

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, National Institutes of Health. (2003). Preventing drug use among children and adolescents: A research-based guide for parents, educators, and community leaders. Betheseda, MD: Author.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. (2003). Prevention in your community. Available: http://preventionpartners.samhsa.gov/foc0414_alcohol_p5.asp

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention. (2001). Underage drinking prevention action guide and planner. Available: http://media.shs.net/prevline/pdfs/phd858.pdf