Seattle Public Schools 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. The focus of the
Seattle Public Schools SIG project is Mercer Middle School in Southeast Seattle.
Project Site
The Southeast Seattle urban community is culturally diverse. Prevention
programs and services must be sensitive to the cultural and language needs of
the area. For many in the community, English is not the primary language spoken
in the home. The schools and several community agencies respond to this
diversity by offering many special programs, such as English as a Second
Language. Economic deprivation is also an issue in Southeast Seattle. Area
schools have one of the highest percentages of students involved in a free or
reduced fee lunch program in the Seattle School District.
Prevention History
Prior to the Southeast Seattle SIG project, prevention efforts in the area
were primarily provided through programs such as Asian Counseling and Referral
Services, Atlantic Street Center, and Washington Asian Pacific Islander Families
Against Substance Abuse. However, partnerships between programs and
organizations were somewhat limited in their scope and generally only
encompassed a few agencies or organizations. Agencies and organizations in
Southeast Seattle were not using science-based programs prior to SIG. Rather,
programs were chosen on the merit of past successes and familiarity. Planning
did not consistently involve data, nor did planning always involve prevention
partners. SIG introduced the concept of using pre-tests and post-tests to
measure changes in risk and protective factors as a result of program
participation. After some initial confusion, pre-/post-tests data were collected
for selected programs.
Challenges experienced by local SIG staff in fulfilling SIG requirements
included unexpected staff turnover, recruitment difficulties, and difficulty
coordinating partners and resources. Programs were more time-consuming than
expected. Use of the Everest database for program evaluation was not begun
during this initial program implementation phase due to confusion regarding its
use by program staff.
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.
The Southeast Seattle SIG project holds monthly provider meetings, informally
called the Southeast Seattle Community Partnerships Meetings. These meetings
include program providers, agencies providing services, school principals and
staff, counselors, project coordinators, project stakeholders, social workers
from the Department of Social and Health Services, and representatives from
Harborview Medical Center. An important SIG achievement has been establishing
partnerships between the schools and outside prevention service agencies that
were not previously involved with the public schools.
Objective 2: To use a risk and protective factor framework to develop a
community prevention action plan...
Implementation of SIG programs has helped educate the Southeast Seattle
community about the prevention framework. SIG has helped school staff learn the
risk and protective framework and then explain it to parents and the community.
Respondents believe that the local prevention community is beginning to
understand and accept the framework. The Developmental Assets prevention
framework is used by Seattle Public Schools.
Objective 3: To participate in joint community risk and protective factor
and resource assessment...
Respondents report that there has been a lack of organization and structure
with regard to a joint community resource assessment. The prevention community
is aware of the importance of participating in a joint resource assessment and
hopes in the future to increase its efforts in this area.
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. The programs selected to address
Seattle Public Schools' prioritized risk and protective factors include the
following:
Tutoring. This school-based program places tutors in classrooms to assist teachers.
Highly successful, the program has generated a demand for even more volunteer
tutors. Teachers have concluded that tutors are having a positive impact and
that youth attentiveness and commitment to academic activities has improved.
Project ALERT is a school-based, social resistance approach to drug abuse
prevention with a highly participatory curriculum. Taught jointly by the
Mercer Middle School and a local prevention agency, Washington Asian Pacific
Islander Families Against Substance Abuse, the program is an example of
successful collaboration. Additional benefits for the community include the
ability to refer a troubled youth to the agency for a case management
assessment and potential services. Due to heavy teaching schedules, however,
Project ALERT is taught in only half of the middle school's classrooms. In
addition, some students said they had already learned similar materials in
sixth grade.
Strengthening Multi-Ethnic Families. This program has a reputation for successfully addressi/ms/rdang issues of
substance abuse within diverse populations. Low attendance, despite multiple
outreach efforts, has been a problem. Prevention planners are considering
locating the program within the schools instead of in community centers in
hopes of improving recruitment.
Objective 5: To use common reporting tools...
To determine community level prevalence rates and risk and protective factor
levels, Mercer Middle School participates 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.
Everest was not used during the first year of the Seattle Public Schools SIG
project. A pre-test was administered to students in the Project Alert program in
2000. Post-tests will be administered at the end of the school year in 2001.
Conclusion
The Southeast Seattle SIG community has shown some progress toward achieving
most of the community level objectives established by the Governor's
Substance Abuse Prevention Advisory Committee. During the last year
of SIG community funding, the Southeast Seattle SIG community will hopefully
move toward institutionalizing some of the changes they have achieved
in the system of prevention planning, funding, implementation, and monitoring
that they developed under SIG.
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: "Seattle Public Schools,
King County Executive Summary of Community-Level Process Evaluation
Reports" Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-12a (123 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 Kings County - Seattle Public Schools." Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-12b (143 KB)
Click on the PDF symbol to the left to download the components of
the community plan: "Project Action Plan for Kings County - Seattle
Public Schools." Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-12c (296 KB)
Click
on the PDF symbol to the left to download the report of the first
year activities: "Seattle Public Schools, Kings County Washington
State Incentive Grant 1st year Community - Level Evaluation 1999-2000." Publication Date: 11/2000. Report Number: 4.43-12d (208 KB)
Click
on the PDF symbol to the left to download the report of the second
year activities: "Seattle Public Schools, Kings County
Washington State Incentive Grant 2nd Year Community - Level Evaluation
2000-2001." Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-12e (249 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: 4.43-12f (213 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 - Kings County - Seattle Public Schools" Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-12g (75 KB)
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Related Information
Link to
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Copyright 2004 Washington State Department of Social and Health Services.
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