KAFC aims for drug-free communities

And the survey says:

“35 percent of area youths have smoked marijuana.

“Almost 40 percent of area youths have smoked cigarettes.

“71 percent of area youths have consumed alcohol, and of them, 45 percent have used it within the last 30 days.

“Our research indicates that marijuana today is stronger than ever,” says Tammy Rubino, executive director of the Kootenai Alliance for Children and Families). “It is much stronger and more addictive than it was 30 years ago.”

The alliance is a 13-year-old nonprofit organization that is doing something to try to change those statistics.

Its mission is “to foster a safe, healthy and drug-free community through strong partnerships and effective programs that reduce at-risk behavior in our community’s youth and create strong families.”

As a membership coalition, the alliance acts as an umbrella organization for numerous agencies, organizations and individuals from every sector of the community.

“Many of our members are from service organizations that work with substance use, domestic violence and other community issues that directly affect youth and their families,” Rubino says.

The alliance has expanded its membership base to include community leaders as well as the general public with the hope that parents, youths and other individuals will become more involved in its substance use prevention efforts.

Rubino says that networking plays an important part in the alliance’s ability to address risk and protective factors.

“By building good working relationships and networking opportunities within our membership, we are able to identify gaps in program services,” she says.

Thanks to a Drug-Free Communities program grant, the alliance has hired a full-time executive director and a half-time support person to focus on utilizing existing partnerships and collaborations to implement prevention programs and activities.

The Kootenai Alliance for Children and Families has worked hard to identify and fill gaps in prevention, treatment and family services over the last 10 years.

It has been successful in spearheading and providing direction for many prevention activities, including Kids Day in the Park, Idaho Youth Summit, the Strengthening Families program, adult and youth DUI victims panels, Restorative Justice Committee and the Citylink bus shelter Art for All project.

The alliance, in conjunction with Kagey Co., also produces North Idaho Family magazine, a twice-yearly publication that highlights programs, services and projects of other agencies in Kootenai County and surrounding areas. Approximately 20,000 copies are published and distributed each spring and fall.

In January 2003, with the vision that “all residents of our Community of Care and Promise are responsible, healthy, secure, principled and empowered to reach their full potential,” the alliance began implementing the Communities That Care best-practice prevention-planning system.

Developed by Dr. David Hawkins and Dr. Richard Catalano of the Social Development Research Group in Seattle and facilitated by the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Communities That Care is a way for members of a community to work together to promote positive youth development and prevent youth problems such as substance abuse, delinquency, teen pregnancy, school dropouts and violence.

In 2003, surveys completed by Coeur d’Alene High School students identified four risk factors – family management, family history of the problem behavior, early initiation of the problem behavior and transitions and mobility.

The survey was administered again last year in Coeur d’Alene High, where new risk factors were identified – transitions and mobility, low commitment to school, laws and norms favorable to drug use and firearms, academic failure and friends’ use of drugs.

The Kootenai alliance works with a Boise State University evaluator to input and report data, create surveys and ensure that reliable data collection is utilized to measure the impact of substance abuse and risk and protective factors.

The success of the alliance’s programs will be recognized Sunday when the organization receives the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare’s Prevention Award for Region 1 in Sun Valley. The award is given to an individual or organization for outstanding contributions to substance abuse prevention in Idaho over a number of years.

The Kootenai alliance has been successful in distributing information about the risks of underage drinking through town hall meetings.

“We have held two town hall meetings, and both have been well-attended,” Rubino says.

Idaho Drug-Free Youth and North Idaho College facilitated the first, which featured youth speakers who discussed their experiences with alcohol, reasons why they have chosen not to drink, friends’ use of alcohol and their own perspectives about the risk of underage drinking.

The second was attended by 70 representatives from local nonprofit organizations and was held in conjunction with the Idaho Nonprofit Development Center of Boise. Topics included visions for nonprofit sectors, common obstacles that prevent nonprofit organizations from reaching their visions and short-and long-term steps to eliminate those obstacles.

As a result, the Kootenai alliance has been working closely with the Idaho Nonprofit Development Center to create a statewide coalition of nonprofit agencies.

The Kootenai alliance offers training every few months on topics important to the community. Early last month, a presentation on gangs in the community was made by Detective Brad Richmond of the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office. Approximately 55 people attended.

The presentations are called “Lunch and Learn,” and the next one will be July 13. Details will be posted on the alliance’s Web site.

Rubino attends informative training and hopes to implement new ideas on coalition sustainability, capacity development, evaluation and reporting.

“Even though we still have a high percentage of youth who reported using alcohol, tobacco and other drugs, we did see a slight decrease over the past two years among ninth-grade students,” Rubino says.

Research also shows significant increases among both ninth- and 12th-graders in the perception of risk and parental disapproval.

“I feel we are doing a better job of educating our kids about the risks of using these substances,” Rubino says. “Unfortunately, the usage rates are not coming down as quickly as we would like.”