Oak Harbor School District 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
Oak Harbor is the largest town on Whidbey Island, located in Puget Sound.
Once a rural community, Oak Harbor is experiencing rapid growth and commercial
development. SIG funding was awarded to the Island County/Stanwood Community
Public Health and Safety Network, which turned over the lead agency position to
Oak Harbor School District. The presence of the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station
provides a large economic base and employment source. Sixty percent of Oak
Harbor School District students come from families connected to the Naval Air
Station.
Prevention History
Prevention activities are not new to the community of Oak Harbor. Prior to
SIG, collaboration efforts, such as Community Mobilization and the Island County
Stanwood Community Public Health and Safety Network, provided community members
and prevention providers an avenue in which to increase coordination and
communication with each other. The school district's involvement in
collaboration efforts has been limited. Partnerships between service providers,
the schools, and the community are now improving. These collaborative efforts
provided a setting for collaborative planning with prevention partners. The Oak
Harbor community had already begun using data for planning, as well as for the
evaluation of program outcomes, before SIG funding was received. The community's
desire for more evaluation data was an integral factor in the application of SIG
funding.
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.
In and of itself, the SIG project, known as the Oak Harbor School District
Student Assistance Program, is an important new prevention partnership. Its
participants include the Oak Harbor School District #201, Island County/Stanwood
Community Public Health and Safety Network, Partnership with Youth, and Big
Brothers/Big Sisters of Island County.
Objective 2: To use a risk and protective factor framework to
develop a community prevention action plan...
Before SIG funding was received, the Oak Harbor prevention community had
already had some experience with the risk and protective framework. SIG helped
to reinforce and increase the community's awareness of this framework, which
was used in the selection of SIG-sponsored programs.
Objective 3: To participate in joint community risk and protective
factor and resource assessment...
Some of Island County's SIG Advisory Board members participated in the
spring 2001 SIG-sponsored collaborative needs assessment. Although there has
been little coordination with regard to a resource assessment in the past,
Island County recently decided to conduct countywide assessments of resources
and programs. Prevention partners have plans to continue sharing data.
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 Oak Harbor School
District selected to address their prioritized risk and protective factors
include the following:
Project ALERT, a social resistance curriculum focusing on
cigarettes, alcohol, and drugs, was part of the curriculum for all students in
sixth grade.
A variety of support groups were established for students in the
middle schools, with topics ranging from substance abuse to divorce to
self-care.
Big Brothers/Big Sisters collaborated with the schools in
establishing mentoring relationships with youth ages ten to fourteen.
An After Hours program of after school activities was offered to
youth in sixth to eighth grades. It takes place for two hours per day, three
days a week.
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-test/post-test, standard questionnaires drawn from the
Everest database were used with participants in the SIG-funded ,science-based
programs.
The two middle schools in Oak Harbor participated for the first
time in the Washington State Survey of Adolescent Health Behavior, an
important measure of substance abuse prevalence and of risk and protective
factors.
Conclusion
A key achievement under the SIG project was to create a viable linkage
between the school system and prevention activities occurring outside the
system. The Oak Harbor 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,
Oak Harbor 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.
In this regard, respondents report that the sustainability workshop offered
them was very helpful. They appreciated the efforts made by SIG to help
communities maintain programs after SIG. The Oak Harbor SIG project is exploring
options including the multi-site consortium idea, grant opportunities, and the
possibility of becoming a pilot program for an intensive research project.
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: "Oak
Harbor School District, Island County Executive Summary
of Community-Level Process Evaluation Reports" Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-8a (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 Island County - Oak Harbor School
District." Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-8b (147KB)
Click
on the PDF symbol to the left to download the components
of the community plan: "Project Action Plan for
Island County - Oak Harbor School District." Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-8c (309 KB)
Click on the PDF symbol
to the left to download the report of the first year activities:
"Oak Harbor School District, Island County Washington
State Incentive Grant 1st year Community - Level Evaluation
1999-2000." Publication Date: 11/2000. Report Number: 4.43-8d (210 KB)
Click
on the PDF symbol to the left to download the report of
the second year activities: "Oak Harbor
School District, Island County Washington State
Incentive Grant 2nd Year Community - Level Evaluation 2000-2001." Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-8e (265 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: 4.43-8f (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 - Island County - Oak
Harbor School District" Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-8g (76 KB)
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Related Information
Link to
website providing additional
information
about Island 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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