Targeted impact: Substance abuse

Substance measure(s): Number of children involved with juvenile court.

Number of children in out-of-school placements.

Frequency of substance use.

Data Support: Juvenile court records. School records.

Identify data collection tool for substance use.

RPAs: Consistent appropriate discipline (and the lack of)

Adult monitoring/supervision (and the lack of)

Friends engage in problem behavior

Significant attachment to pro-social adults

Community norms on substance abuse

Identify areas of High risk: Unsupervised after-school hours.

The committee identified after-school hours as a high-risk period in terms of mental health, substance abuse violence/abuse and criminal behavior.

As effective PFS strategies focus on gaps and high-risk areas, Hocking County substance abuse strategies will focus on after-school hours.

Priority RPAs: Supervision and discipline

Strategies are created to impact RPAs. Exploring supervision and discipline as the number one RPA, the committee felt that supervision, discipline and even norms were adequate during school hours, not as feasible to address in the home, and severely lacking from 3 to 7 p.m. The committee decided to concentrate resources during the after-school period in order to be most effective.

Data Support: Attendance at after-school programming.

(Amount of time supervised is a concrete measure.)

System:

Hocking County’s PFS substance abuse strategy is to

increase children’s exposure to adult supervision, consistent discipline,

pro-social adults and healthy norms (RPAs) by expanding prevention

and early intervention programming available in identified areas of high risk

(particularly after-school and at the alternative school).