Toppenish Police Department in Yakima County 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 Toppenish is a small town with a population of 7,940 in eastern Yakima
County. It experienced a rapid cultural shift from a majority white population
in the 1980s to a majority Hispanic population during the 1990s. The town is
located on the Yakima Indian Nation Reservation. Part of the only federally
designated Northwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) in eastern
Washington, Toppenish experiences easy availability of drugs and drug arrest
rates are more than four times the state average for ages 10-17.
Prevention History
Prior to SIG, prevention services were primarily provided through the
Toppenish School District in conjunction with Merit Resource Services, an
outpatient treatment and prevention service, and the Toppenish Police
Department. Substance abuse prevention has been addressed by Intervention and
Prevention Specialists and Student Resource Officers (SRO's), and is included
in the work of Toppenish High School's Peer Health Experts and Peer
Counselors. Parenting classes that include substance abuse prevention education
have been taught by the Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic in Toppenish and by
the Central Washington Comprehensive Mental Health Program in Yakima. Although
each segment of Toppenish's prevention services has been well planned, what
was lacking before SIG was the coordinated, city wide planning, provision, and
program effectiveness monitoring of substance abuse prevention services.
The most visible evidence of Toppenish's progress is the Safe Haven
building, acquired and remodeled using city funds. SIG provides maintenance and
operating funds for the building, which has room for several social service
offices. Social services located within Safe Haven have gained improved access
to each other for purposes of service coordination and referrals. The office
space provided by Safe Haven attracted several new service agencies to town. In
addition to formal social services, Safe Haven provides a safe and drug-free
place for children after school and space for computer and recreation classes.
Safe Haven helped the city qualify for designation as a United States
Department of Justice Weed and Seed site. This designation made the city
eligible to apply for funding from several other sources. Thus, Toppenish used
the State Incentive Grant to leverage funds, that is, to create eligibility and
apply for additional funding based on previous awards and achievements.
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.
An unusual feature of the Toppenish SIG site, among the 18 community
grantees, is its Safe Haven building where prevention programs are provided,
along with recreation opportunities, computer lab, the SHOP school, and offices
for several social service agencies. Renovating the old building required
partnerships among the city administration, the police department, Fort Simcoe
vocational training program, and the jail, as inmates who had been jailed due to
the inability to pay fines were paid to assist in the renovation.
Objective 2: To use a risk and protective factor framework to
develop a community prevention action plan...
and...
Objective 3: To participate in joint community risk and protective
factor and resource assessment...
SIG helped increase awareness of the risk and protective factor framework
among Toppenish prevention providers, the schools, and city administrators.
Further training is needed for schools and providers, as understanding and use
of the framework is not universal. Examples of data sets that were used in
planning are local demographic reports, county profiles, juvenile justice
reports, law enforcement data, and the Washington State Survey of Adolescent
Health Behavior.
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 that Toppenish selected
to address their prioritized risk and protective factors include the following:
Tutoring
Home Visiting
Mentoring
Parent Training: Los Ninos Bien Educados
Parent Training: Strengthening Multi-Ethnic Families and
Communities
Safe Haven Community Center Recreation Activities
Objective 5: To use common reporting tools...
One of the requirements for participating in the SIG project was to
participate in the Washington State Survey of Adolescent Health Behavior. Survey
data provide cross-sectional substance abuse prevalence rates and measures of
risk and protective factors among 6th, 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students.
This objective was fulfilled in two ways:
Pre- and post-tests from the Everest database were used with
program participants in SIG-funded prevention programs, with an emphasis
on science-based programs.
The Toppenish School District participated for the first time
in the Washington State Survey of Adolescent Health Behavior, an important
measure of substance abuse prevalence and risk and protective factors.
Conclusion A key achievement under the SIG project was to create linkages between
various social services by housing them in one location, Safe Haven. Toppenish
leveraged SIG funds by using SIG to qualify for a US Department of Justice grant
known as Weed and Seed, thus adding an environmental approach to prevention with
a science-based program approach. The Toppenish SIG project has made progress
toward achieving the community level objectives as established by the Governor's
Substance Abuse Prevention Advisory Committee. During the last year of SIG
community funding, Toppenish intends to develop methods to maintain some of the
changes they have achieved in the system of prevention planning, funding,
implementation, and monitoring 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: "Toppenish Police Department,
Yakima County Executive Summary of Community-Level Process Evaluation
Reports." Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-17a (143 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 Yakima County - Toppenish Police
Department." Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-17b (146 KB)
Click on the PDF symbol to the left to download the components of
the community plan: "Project Action Plan for Yakima County -
Toppenish Police Department." Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-17c (319 KB)
Click
on the PDF symbol to the left to download the report of the first
year activities: "Toppenish Police Department, Yakima
County Washington State Incentive Grant 1st year Community - Level
Evaluation 1999-2000." Publication Date: 11/2000. Report Number: 4.43-17d (220 KB)
Click
on the PDF symbol to the left to download the report of the second
year activities: "Toppenish Police Department, Yakima
County Washington State Incentive Grant 2nd Year Community
- Level Evaluation 2000-2001." Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-17e (236 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: 4.43-17f (80 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 - Yakima County - Toppenish Police Department." Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-17g (75 KB)
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Related Information
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Copyright 2004 Washington State Department of Social and Health Services.
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