Olympic Educational Service District 114 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
Olympic ESD 144 offices are located in Bremerton, Kitsap County. Their SIG
project was located in Jefferson County, one of the counties within the
boundaries of Olympic ESD 114, which is one of nine school district consortiums
in Washington State. Located in the north and east Olympic Peninsula, Jefferson
County is a rural county that lacks many of the services and programs found in
urban areas. Many adults and youth view the use of alcohol, tobacco, and other
drugs as an easy way to "kill time." In order to counter these perceptions
and attitudes, family-oriented programs that teach refusal and parenting skills
were chosen for the project. SIG-sponsored prevention programs were provided in
the eastern Jefferson County communities of Port Townsend, Chimacum, Brinnon,
and Quilcene.
Prevention History
Prior to SIG, Jefferson County collaborative planning efforts among
prevention agencies, organizations, and school districts were limited. The SIG
project represents one of the county's first collaborative efforts in grant
writing and assessing prevention needs and services. SIG introduced the concept
of using data to prioritize risk and protective factors, and to select and
evaluate science-based programs. Programs selected by the Jefferson County SIG
project address family management skills and family relations.
Challenges reportedly experienced by local SIG staff while attempting to
implement the SIG project included a limited variety of research-based
prevention programs from which to choose, school personnel's uneasiness
regarding program scope and target populations, the unexpectedly high amount of
travel time required for program providers, and unanticipated training costs.
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.
Jefferson County Community Network helped create the Jefferson County
Prevention Council before SIG funding was awarded. SIG's emphasis on
partnerships has helped to stimulate the Prevention Council's interest in
increasing its own collaborations. On a quarterly basis, the Jefferson County
Prevention Council brings together service providers and the public for the
exchange of information, review of local research, and development of strategies
to enhance services. The Council has had a tremendous impact, respondents note,
in increasing community awareness about SIG programs.
Objective 2: To use a risk and protective factor framework to develop a
community prevention action plan...
SIG helped increase awareness of the risk and protective factor framework
among Jefferson County prevention providers, the schools, and Olympic ESD 114.
Further training is needed for other schools and providers as understanding and
use of the framework is not universal.
Objective 3: To participate in joint community risk and protective factor
and resource assessment...
Members of the Jefferson County Prevention Council participated in the data
driven, SIG-sponsored, collaborative needs assessment, pilot-tested statewide in
spring 2001. As their resource assessment, the council mapped school-based
prevention programs throughout the county to identiFiscal Year existing resources and
service gaps. Examples of data sets that were used in planning include local
demographic reports, county profiles, juvenile justice reports, law enforcement
data, the Washington State Survey of Adolescent Health Behavior, and local
health district census reports.
Objective 4: To select and implement effective prevention actions...
The SIG process encouraged the choice of programs that have been shown,
through published research, to be effective in different locales and with
multiple populations. These are known as research-based programs. The programs
the Council selected to address their prioritized risk and protective factors
include the following:
Strengthening Families: A science based program for 6- to
10-year-old children of substance abusers. It includes a parent training
program, a children's skills training program, and a family skills training
program. It has been implemented in three of the four SIG sites.
Take Time: A school-based support program for students and
their families, it serves a set number of youth and families. Some schools
expected a higher number of youth to be served by the program.
Functional Family Therapy: An eight to twelve week in-home
program to increase reciprocity and positive support among family members and
to create clear and positive communication. Enrollment and participation have
been higher in the two larger communities, Port Townsend and Chimacum, than in
Brinnon and Quilcene.
Objective 5: To use common reporting tools...
Common reporting tools include the Washington State Survey of Adolescent
Health Behaviors and the Everest program monitoring outcome system. Because they
are funded through many sources, prevention providers must observe multiple
evaluation and reporting requirements.
Conclusion
The Jefferson County SIG community has shown progress toward meeting its
internal SIG goals and objectives, and toward achieving the community level
objectives established by the Governor's Substance Abuse Prevention Advisory
Committee. During the third and last year of SIG community funding, Jefferson
County intends to 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:"Olympic
Educational Service District 114, Jefferson County Executive
Summary of Community-Level Process Evaluation Reports" Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-9a (142 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 Jefferson County - Olympic Educational
Service District 114." Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-9b (145 KB)
Click
on the PDF symbol to the left to download the components
of the community plan: "Project Action Plan for
Jefferson County - Olympic Educational Service
District 114." Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-9c (291 KB)
Click on the PDF symbol
to the left to download the report of the first year activities:
"Olympic Educational Service District 114, Jefferson
County Washington State Incentive Grant 1st year Community
- Level Evaluation 1999-2000." Publication Date: 11/2000. Report Number: 4.43-9d (212 KB)
Click
on the PDF symbol to the left to download the report of
the second year activities: "Olympic
Educational Service District 114, JeffersonCounty
Washington State Incentive Grant 2nd Year Community - Level
Evaluation 2000-2001." Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-9e (266 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: 4.43-9f (81 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 - Jefferson
County - Olympic Educational Service District 114, Jefferson"
Publication Date: 04/2002. Report Number: 4.43-9g (76 KB)
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