Crossroads Treatment Center in Pierce 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
North Thurston School District serves an ethnically and economically diverse
student population of some 13,000. It draws students from the city of Lacey and
parts of rural Thurston County, including part of the Nisqually Tribe
Reservation. Over half of North Thurston School District's twelfth graders
report using alcohol regularly, while more than one-quarter report using tobacco
or marijuana regularly. North Thurston County is part of the federally
designated Northwest High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA).
Prevention History
Substance abuse prevention services available at North Thurston Schools
include several programs that have been in place for some time: D.A.R.E. (Drug
Awareness and Resistance Education); Second Step (the only research-based
prevention program in use prior to SIG), a violence prevention program; and WEB
(Welcome Every Body), a peer-mentoring program in which eighth grade students
mentor seventh grade students in conflict resolution and social skill building.
School Resource Officers of the Lacey Police Department are stationed at the
high schools. SIG links North Thurston's prevention planning to risk and
protective factors for the first time. The school district has an extensive
history of community partnerships and the use of data in planning.
Progress toward Community Level Objectives Objective 1: Establish partnerships...
The Bridge Project, North Thurston School District's SIG project, got off
the ground with the award of SIG to the North Thurston School District and the
folding of the district's Health Planning Teams into the Community Partnership
Coalition (CPC). Bridge Project programs are heavily dependent upon
relationships among member agencies and individuals of the CPC.
The result of three years of planning by the Health Planning Teams and CPC,
the Bridge Project is designed to be an umbrella approach to helping at-risk
students in times of transition. The Bridge Project includes services to address
the transition between school and home, including after-school care, homework
help, mentoring, and group support through Community ClubHouses at elementary
and middle schools. Parent education and support are also provided. Other
transitions addressed are those between elementary school and junior high school
and between junior high school and high school. These are times when children
are at increased risk for academic failure and involvement in substance use. The
Bridge Project also creates links between schools and community social services,
making more resources available to students at school, as well as making it
easier for parents to access services.
Objectives 2 and 3: Use a risk and protective factor framework for
planning and participate in joint community risk and protective factor and
resource assessment.
Risk and protective factors have been thoroughly incorporated into the CPC's
planning efforts, which include providing substance abuse prevention programs to
young children, youth, and families in north Thurston County. Knowledge of risk
and protective factors is not just limited to the CPC, but teachers, principals,
school board members, and district administrators now understand the value of a
risk and protective framework for improving student resiliency and achievement.
Risk and protective factor-based needs and resource assessments are ongoing
through the CPC, which includes TOGETHER!, the county Community Mobilization
Against Substance Abuse agency, representing thirty-seven community
organizations.
Objective 4: Select and implement effective prevention actions...
This objective refers to implementing prevention programs that have been
shown to be effective through research. The Bridge Project coordinates efforts
to address the risk and protective factors identified for NTSD students in the
fourth through ninth grades through Community ClubHouses, the Transition
Program, Parents as Partners, and the Child Development Project.
Objective 5: To use common reporting tools...
Reporting tools are used to measure the effectiveness of prevention programs.
At the program level, North Thurston School District had available through SIG
the Everest program outcome monitoring system. For measurement of community
level outcomes, North Thurston schools participate in the Washington State
Survey of Adolescent Health Behavior. Both Everest and the survey measure risk
and protective factors. The survey also measures substance abuse prevalence.
Successes
One of the greatest successes of the North Thurston School District SIG
project has been the creation of a menu of programs for schools to choose from
and a system for funding those programs. Through SIG, NTSD has been able to
field test research-based substance abuse prevention programming in its
community that addresses the specific risk and protective factors indicated as
areas of need, as well as piloting the Community ClubHouse program at elementary
schools and middle schools in the district. Individual schools may choose
programs that best fit their needs, and can know ahead of time the costs,
challenges, and strategies for implementation, projected outcomes for each
program, and have a system for evaluation of those programs. Schools can use
Medicaid Match monies, as well as other funding streams, to bring programs
tested in their own district to their students and families. School
PROFESSIONALs do not have to look far to find someone who can help them by
sharing their experiences with program implementation. The Bridge Project
concept of providing support for students at critical junctures of transition
has now spread to several non-SIG-funded school sites in the North Thurston
School District. The NTSD has decided to include funding for student support
services, such as substance abuse prevention services, in its essential funding
priorities, relieving them from reliance on discretionary funds. North Thurston
School District is building on SIG implementation successes to bring similar
prevention packages to other schools in the district, with the goal of bringing
all schools up to the same level of protection.
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: "North
Thurston School District, Thurston County Executive Summary
of Community-Level Process Evaluation Reports" Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-7a (135 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 Thurston County - North Thurston
School District." Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-7b (145 KB)
Click
on the PDF symbol to the left to download the components
of the community plan: "Project Action Plan
for Thurston County - North Thurston School District" Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-7c (474 KB)
Click on the PDF symbol
to the left to download the report of the first year activities:
"North Thurston School District, Thurston
County Washington State Incentive Grant 1st year Community
- Level Evaluation 1999-2000." Publication Date: 11/2000. Report Number: 4.43-7d (289 KB)
Click
on the PDF symbol to the left to download the report of
the second year activities: "North
Thurston School District, Thurston County
Washington State Incentive Grant 2nd Year Community - Level
Evaluation 2000-2001." Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-7e (385 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: 4.43-7f (104 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 - Thurston
County - North Thurston School District." Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-7g (74 KB)
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Related Information
Link
to website providing additional information about Thurston
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.
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