Missouri Coalition Turns to Teens for Prevention Solutions

After several years in the substance abuse prevention field, coalition leaders in Southeastern Missouri have learned a valuable lesson -- young people are the community´s greatest experts. As a result, the Southeastern Missouri Youth Substance Abuse Coalition, based in Cape Girardeau County, Mo., turns to local youth for help with key aspects of their drug prevention strategy -- from identifying the substance abuse problem in their community to deciding where dollars should be spent.

"We can only guess as adults what drugs young people use and what youth need to help them," explained Jim Maginel, Project Coordinator of the Southeastern Missouri Youth Substance Abuse Coalition in Cape Girardeau County. "We can't do prevention without working together with youth."

County figures show a serious problem with underage drinking and alcohol abuse among youth. For example, of the 10,000 young people in Cape Girardeau County and Scott City, Mo., 1,061 have a serious alcohol problem, 84.5 percent do not get treatment and 894 out of 1,061 kids need alcohol treatment.

The coalition recently laid the groundwork to conduct youth focus groups in schools throughout the county. Led by youth facilitators, the focus groups will attempt to paint a clearer picture of the county's substance abuse problem.

"We want to find out what their perception is about drug use and whether youth consider it to be a problem, what drugs youth are using most, where they obtain the drugs and what we can do to support healthy choices," Maginel said. "Whether it's recreational activities or increased law enforcement; if it's coming from them I would think it's more likely to be focused on what really needs to be addressed in the community."

The coalition will first identify youth volunteers from various high schools and train them as focus group facilitators. The goal is to obtain "real-time" information about the type of drugs youth are using and prevalence of use, and to identify gaps in prevention or treatment and find out what types of community strategies can prevent youth from using drugs.

The group hopes to use the information gleaned from the focus groups as a "wake-up call" to parents in the community that alcohol abuse is a real problem among youth. Maginel said many parents underestimate the severity of the problem and consider drinking part of growing up.

"We're hoping to convince parents and other adults in the community that alcohol is a problem and that is it often the beginning of other serious issues, like teenage pregnancy and violent behavior," he noted.

With the help of local teens, the coalition also developed a guide offering various sectors of the community with practical strategies to help prevent youth drug use. The manual, Prevalence and Prevention of Youth Substance Abuse in Southeastern Missouri: What Can You Do?, provides athletic coaches, parents, childcare/pre-school employees, educators, youth group leaders, faith-based role models, employee supervisors, and agency personnel with steps they can take in their everyday settings to better monitor what youth are doing and help make youth make the right choices.
"We're trying to prompt adults to do little things that can make a difference in youth that they come in contact with, and to engage them in notion that substance abuse requires a true community-wide effort," Maginel explained.

The guide, "Prevalence and Prevention of Youth Substance Abuse in Southeast Missouri," can be used by coalitions in any community to increase community-wide participation in substance abuse prevention.

Reprinted from CADCA's Coalitions Online, 11/3/2005.