Pacific County Health & Human
Services and Willapa Children's Services
Executive Summary
Pacific County Kid Care, a collaboration of Pacific County Health and Human
Services and Willapa Children's Services, is one of eighteen recipients of the
Washington State Incentive Grant (SIG). SIG funds are allocated to communities
to prevent the use, misuse and abuse of alcohol, tobacco, marijuana and other
drugs by Washington State youth. Community grantees are expected to make their
local prevention system more effective by establishing prevention partnerships,
using a risk and protective factor framework for data driven needs assessments,
and by implementing and monitoring science-based prevention programs.
Project Site
During SIG's second year of community grantee funding, the four
participating Pacific County school districts offered several programs for
fourth through sixth grade students; a county-wide Adventure Day for seventh
graders took place; a parenting program continued to be tested; troubled youth
took part in experiential outdoor education; and seventy community members
attended an informational forum on risk factors and prevention.
Prevention History
Prior to the State Incentive Grant, prevention services were primarily
provided through mini grants to the school districts, with other prevention
projects being tried periodically. Following changes in health care, and the
first results of the Washington State Survey of Adolescent Health Behaviors (WSSAHB),
extensive community networking was performed to study and address health issues
in Pacific County. Substance abuse was identified as a major concern. Pacific
County Kid Care, the local SIG project, was formed to provide a comprehensive
prevention plan for the county, including science-based programming. SIG
introduced science-based prevention programs to Pacific County.
Progress toward SIG Community Level Objectives Objective 1: To establish partnerships...to collaborate at the local
level to prevent alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, and other drug use, misuse, and
abuse by youth.
Pacific County Kid Care partners with a broad spectrum of agencies, both
public and private, to provide substance abuse prevention services throughout
the county.
Objective 2: To use a risk and protective factor framework to develop a
community prevention action plan...
The county's needs assessment traditionally uses the risk and protective
factor model to prioritize needs. Pacific County Kid Care identified risk
factors to address during its SIG prevention project, including community laws
and norms favorable toward use and early initiation of the problem behavior
among others. Protective factors they plan to develop in their community were
also identified.
Objective 3: To participate in joint community risk and protective factor
and resource assessment...
Every two years, Pacific County partners assess the substance abuse
prevention needs of their community. Resource assessment is published as the Pacific
County Resource Directory, by Community Mobilization against Substance
Abuse. One consistent finding is that the needs of Pacific County residents far
outstrip the resources available, both funding resources and professional personnel capable of providing services in the community. Pacific County Health
and Human Services acted as the lead agency in the pilot test of the
collaborative needs assessment sponsored by SIG.
Objective 4: To select and implement effective prevention actions...
The SIG process encouraged the choice of programs shown through published
research to be effective in different locales and with multiple populations.
These are known as research-based programs. At four elementary schools in the
county, Pacific County Kid Care implemented the After School Activities Program,
with I'm Special as its research-based programming component. All
fifth-graders in participating districts were taught Promoting Alternative
Thinking Strategies. Preparing for the Drug Free Years was offered for
interested parents in two locations, one serving the north county, and one the
south. Selected students exhibiting behavioral problems in school participated
in an experiential outdoor education program, Youth Adventures.
Objective 5: To use common reporting tools...
To determine community level prevalence rates and risk and protective factor
levels, Pacific County SIG schools participate in the Washington State Survey of
Adolescent Health Behavior. Program level data on risk and protective factors is
gathered using pre-tests and post-tests. Some of these test results are entered
into the Everest program outcome monitoring web-based database, developed by the
Division of Alcohol and Substance Abuse, Washington State Department of Social
and Health Services, and tested by SIG community grantees.
Conclusions
Pacific County Kid Care SIG Project has had a large impact on the way Pacific
County plans and implements substance abuse prevention programming. For the
first time, prevention efforts are coordinated on a countywide basis, with
research-based programming provided in each of the four participating school
districts. One of the greatest successes of Pacific County Kid Care in SIG Year
2 was the spread of awareness in their community about the need for substance
abuse prevention. Pacific County Kid Care held an open house educational session
for the community that explained risk factors and showed how the county compared
to the state rates for each domain. Seventy community members attended. This
forum was part of the pilot test of the SIG-sponsored collaborative needs
assessment.
Download Community Report
Click on the PDF symbol to the left to download the brief description
to the achievements and challenges experienced in implementing science
based prevention in this community: "Pacific County Public
Health and Human Services and Willapa Children's Services, Pacific
County Executive Summary of Community-Level Process Evaluation Reports" Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-11a (132 KB)
Click on the PDF symbol to the left to download a description of
the prevention activities and the main community partners: "Community
Project Description for Pacific County - Pacific County
Public Health and Human Services and Willapa Children's Services." Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-11b (149KB)
Click on the PDF symbol to the left to download the components of
the community plan: "Project Action Plan for Pacific County -
Pacific County Public Health and Human Services and
Willapa Children's Services." Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-11c (299 KB)
Click
on the PDF symbol to the left to download the report of the first
year activities: "Pacific County Public Health and Human
Services and Willapa Children's Services, Pacific County Washington
State Incentive Grant 1st year Community - Level Evaluation 1999-2000." Publication Date: 11/2000. Report Number: 4.43-11d (226 KB)
Click
on the PDF symbol to the left to download the report of the second
year activities: "Pacific County Public Health and Human
Services and Willapa Children's Services, Pacific County Washington
State Incentive Grant 2nd Year Community - Level Evaluation 2000-2001." Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-11e (242 KB)
Click
on the PDF symbol to the left to download data on changes in risk
and protection factors for prevention program participants: "Program
Outcomes" Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-11f (82 KB)
Click on the PDF symbol to the left to download data on changes
in trends of risk and protection for the entire community: "Community
Outcomes Report - Pacific County - Pacific County Public Health
and Human Services and Willapa Children's Services" Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-11g (77 KB)
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Related Information
Link to
website providing additional
information
about Pacific county
For more ways to get in touch with the Department of Social
and Health Services, go to
the DSHS Contact
Information Web page. Technical Site Comments: DSHS Webmaster.
Copyright 2004 Washington State Department of Social and Health Services.
Case
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