West Carroll Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws (EUDL) Committee
A Rural communities Initiative
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West Carroll Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws (EUDL) Committee A Rural communities Initiative |
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Best-Practices and The Strategic Prevention Framework The term Best-Practices refers to the use of specific programs, practices and policies that have demonstrated success in bringing about desired changes in targeted behaviors and attitudes. Due to decreased funding and increased competition for these funds, grant sources seek to increase the chances for success by requiring grant recipients to be better prepared and more thoughtful when considering activities and strategies to utilize. One such proven method is the use of best-practices. The Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) is a process or procedure that is comprised of 5 components and 2 overriding concepts. The 5 components are: Assessment, Capacity Building, Planning, Implementation and Evaluation. The 2 overriding concepts include Cultural Competence and Sustainability. Assessment: The SPF is a data-driven process. The first step of this process is to find out exactly what is actually occurring in the community. This is done by collecting data from many sources. The sources may be surveys, focus groups, statistics collected by Law Enforcement, Health Departments, Treatment Centers etc., interviews from Key Stakeholders, or requesting data from any organization that deals with persons who are consumers of various substances or the consequences of consumption of such substances. The data collected must reflect your chosen target population. For example, if you wish to address underage drinking your data must demonstrate high usage of alcohol by youth in the community. Capacity Building: Building capacity refers to increasing the knowledge and skills of key persons or groups as well as leveraging existing resources in order to sustain or keep going chosen activities. Planning: Once baseline data is obtained and key persons are educated and trained, planning can occur. The plan should include your choice of activities, strategies for gathering and organizing people and resources and strategies for implementation of the activities. Measurable goals and objectives must be set. Progress will be monitored throughout the process by comparing current data to the original baseline data. Adjustments can and should be made as deemed necessary. Planning for sustainability of the programs, policies and procedures should occur at each step of the process. Implementation: At this stage, the plan is executed. Your chosen best-practices, activities and programs commence. Evaluation: There are two types of evaluation, process evaluation and outcome evaluation. Process evaluation refers to monitoring how things are being done and measuring how well they are being done. Outcome evaluation refers to the measurable goals and objectives of the program. Baseline data is compared to the data collected at the end of the implementation stage. For example, if the baseline data that was originally collected demonstrated 70% of 10th graders binge drank in the past two weeks, the outcome measure following the chosen intervention will hopefully demonstrate a reduction in that percentage of 10th graders who drank in the past two weeks (at the end of the program). Outcome measures are based on hard statistics and are a stronger measure of success.
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Funded in whole or part by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and the Illinois Department of Human Services. Sinnissippi Centers Inc., Fiscal Agent Webmaster Dawne E. Elliott
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