This section includes four activities which can all be completed using the survey data we provide about a hypothetical community called Johnstown. You may, however, choose to use needs assessment data from your own community to make these activities even more relevant to your work.

Try It Yourself! Activity #1 -- Deciphering Data: What Did You Learn?

If you haven't taken a recent statistics course, it may have been awhile since you've looked carefully at a data set, report, or table. This Try It Yourself! activity is designed to strengthen your analytic skills as you practice looking critically at some "real" survey data, discerning the important messages, and relating these problems to known risk and protective factors. We hope you will consider the questions presented below when you review data describing your own community.

The data we have included were collected over a two-year period from the Johnstown Middle School.

• Step 1: Getting the Big Picture

Take a close look at the data we have presented. Which pieces of information jump out at you? Which problems emerged only after taking a careful second look? Consider the following questions and think about how you might apply them to the information you have collected about your own community:

What are the most significant problems facing the community? (Be specific as to type of drugs or violent behavior.) What data support your assertions? Which populations seem to be most affected by these problems? Where do these problems tend to occur (in school or outside of school)? Has the scope of these problems changed over the two-year survey period? Do the problems appear to be related? What additional information will you need to "complete" your picture?

 

Note: You may want to try graphing some of the data, as many people find it easier to interpret information that is presented graphically.

• Step 2: Linking Problems to Risk and Protective Factors

Consider how the problems you identified relate to risk factors for drug use and violence. Develop a list of risk and protective factors that correspond with the three main problems revealed by the data. Again, think about the information you have collected from your own community, and which risk and protective factors are most prevalent or lacking.

Try It Yourself ! Activity #2 -- Writing a Long-Term Outcome Statement

How many of you have sat down to write a long-term outcome statement and found yourself staring at a blank page, unable to describe your problem succinctly or to quantify the changes you envision for your school or community? Using the set of questions provided in the Part 2 materials, this Try It Yourself! exercise is designed to give you practice in writing measurable and realistic long-term outcome statements. We hope you will share this exercise with members of your planning team as you develop your own comprehensive prevention plan.

Using the data provided in Deciphering Data: What Did You Learn?, please answer the following questions: What is the main problem(s) you identified? What risk factors correspond to this priority? Who is the target population? What action or change do you expect to see? What is your baseline or starting point from which you will measure change? How much change from that baseline do you expect to see? By when do you expect to see this change? How will you measure this change?

 

Based on your answers to these questions, write a long-term outcome statement. Remember, be realistic!

 

Comprehensive prevention initiatives often require multiple long-term outcome statements. Are there any other outcome statements you could have written based on the information you collected? What are they?

Try It Yourself! Activity #3 -- What Strategies Would You Choose?

In the Try It Yourself! activity entitled Deciphering Data: What Did You Learn?, you reviewed needs assessment data from Johnstown Middle School to identify the community's major problems. You then went a step further and developed a list of associated risk and protective factors, and a set of long-term outcome statements.

In this Try It Yourself! activity, we ask you to continue this process and determine which research-based strategies you would recommend to Johnstown's school-community planning team to help them address the community's drug- and violence-related problems. Thinking about the eight broad strategies described in Part 3: Examining School-Linked Prevention Strategies, consider these questions:

1. Which school-linked prevention strategy, or combination of strategies, do you feel would be most appropriate for the Johnstown community?

 

What criteria did you use for selecting these strategies?

 

What else would you like to know about Johnstown to help you determine which of these strategies might be feasible for that community?

Try It Yourself! Activity #4 -- Preparing a Press Release

Now you are ready to help Johnstown's school-community planning team publicize their plans! One way to do this is by preparing a press release for the local newspaper(s). Press releases are brief summaries or updates that alert the media and the larger community about a group's news and initiatives. Typically written by people working in the field rather than by journalists, press releases can be a great way to reach out and tell the community what you are doing.

Building on the decisions you made in the previous Try It Yourself! activities, prepare a press release about Johnstown's prevention initiative. Refer to the Press Release Template for some tips.