The Boston Coalition, Boston, Mass.

Founded in 1991 by Jack Driscoll, a partner in a prominent Boston law firm, the Boston Coalition was a response to the problem of gang- and drug-related violence in Boston. Driscoll first became aware of these problems when the Boston Bar Association published the findings of a study examining Bostonians' views on drugs and violence and policies pertaining to substance abuse and violence. The report exposed a lack of cooperation and coordination between the public- and private-sector efforts to deal with substance abuse. Undaunted, Driscoll persisted and began the coalition's work as an official non-profit organization.

The Boston Coalition had both financial and in-kind support with which to begin its work. The coalition initially received support from the Boston Bar Association and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Driscoll also identified additional resources from individual donors. Finally, on a pro-bono basis, Anderson Consulting helped the coalition decide how to implement its plans effectively, and helped establish a cadre of task forces that were designed to carry out the coalition's work.

The Boston Coalition's most notable recent outcome was its effort to craft the Cooperative Agreement on Underage Drinking. Twenty-four area college and university presidents signed the Cooperative Agreement, viewing it as the first step in changing community norms and behavior on their campuses. Moreover, influential Bostonians, including Mayor Thomas Menino, Police Commissioner Paul Evans, Attorney General Scott Harshbarger, and state Public Health Commissioner Paul Evans, all participated in the development of the agreement. By working together, they all believe that Boston and its institutions of higher education will become safer, healthier places for students to live, study and play.

Community Coalition for Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment, Los Angeles, Calif.

In 1989, Karen Bass, a woman with activist roots in South Central Los Angeles, convened a group of her friends to discuss the crisis resulting from the influx of crack cocaine into the inner-city, and possibilities for change. Nobody in the group had any background in the field of substance abuse, but members understood the pervasiveness of the crack problem and the ways in which it undermined the entire community. The conference was more successful than anyone had anticipated, and it prompted a local government official to encourage Bass and the other activists to apply for a federal grant from the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP).

The Community Coalition for Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment was created in 1990 as a 510(c)(3) organization with a five-year, $1.5 million CSAP grant. The original mission of the coalition was to "transform the hopelessness and despair that characterize parts of the South Los Angeles community into effective action and community building." The coalition saw substance abuse as a symptom of greater community ills, and in addressing those ills attempted to empower the community and give it hope. The mission has evolved, and now focuses mainly on using broad-based commitments from the community to transform the social and economic conditions in South Central Los Angeles. "Our mission then was based on repairing, and now it's based on building," says Marqueece Dawson, director of Youth Programs for the coalition.

A lot has changed in South Central because of the coalition's work. For example, after the civil unrest in 1992, the coalition prevented the rebuilding of approximately 150 liquor stores. The coalition also supported the development of 44 non-alcohol-related businesses, which now exists in lots vacated by the aforementioned liquor stores. The project not only empowered the community members who promoted and enforced this change, but also decreased crime in the area of the liquor stores by 16 percent.

The Miami Coalition for a Safe and Drug-Free Community, Miami, Fla.

In March 1988, leaders from most of Miami's major corporations began discussing how the private sector could help the public sector. Dubbed the "Non-Group" by a Miami newspaper, these leaders were recognized for their powerful but informal alliance and their ability to create change in the community. Tad Foote, president of the University of Miami, took his concerns about Miami's drug problem to a meeting of the group. Initially, the business leaders were reluctant to take on such an issue. President Foote, however, persisted; if the group wanted to do something to bolster Miami's quality of life, he said, it should address the drug problem. Foote continued to campaign and, finally, the group came to realize not only that substance abuse was a problem that needed to be addressed, but also that they were in a position to do so in an effective way.

In June 1988, the leaders created the Miami Coalition for a Safe and Drug-Free Community. In three months, the executives raised $1 million from private sources to support the coalition for its first five years. Eleven years later, the coalition persists in carrying out its mission with two significant changes: the inclusion of violence prevention and tobacco and alcohol prevention in its mission.

One of the Miami Coalition's most noteworthy outcomes is the role it played in helping reduce the percentage of high school seniors who reported using marijuana at least once during the most recent 30-day period. The coalition used a three-part strategy to do this. First, they developed a media strategy to raise awareness of marijuana's ever-increasing potency and to give parents strategies to help talk to their children about drug. The second part of the plan included the development of a network of prevention agencies to increase understanding of the harmfulness of marijuana. Specifically, the coalition linked marijuana's harmfulness to cigarettes by pointing out the carcinogen that both drugs share.

Finally, the coalition made a concerted effort to get the word out to youth. Avoiding dry lectures, the coalition engaged youth in frank roundtable discussions about the direct and indirect harms that result from marijuana use.

The result: The percentage of high school seniors who reported using marijuana within the past 30 days decreased from 22 percent in 1995 to nine percent in 1997.

Nashville Prevention Partnership, Nashville, Tenn.

In 1989, Nashville Network 2000, a group of representatives from 17 public and private social-service agencies, began thinking about Nashville's future, particularly as it related to substance abuse. Members of the group were concerned that Nashville was not receiving any of the large, federal grants that were being offered for the prevention, intervention and treatment of substance abuse.

Gerald Nicely, then the Director of the Nashville Public Housing Authority, hired a grant writer to help the group apply for federal funding. The first application submitted by Nashville Network 2000 was not funded, but, undaunted, the group tried again. The Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) approved the group's second application in 1991, and committed $2 million to fund what became the Nashville Prevention Partnership.

The Nashville Prevention Partnership's (NPP's) membership has grown 150 percent since 1997, the last year of the Partnership's CSAP grant. NPP has been self-sustaining since the end of the CSAP grant, and now has over 270 members. This growth is the result of the initial investments that NPP put into creating centers of influence in every sector of society, from the faith community to neighborhoods to businesses. "We had the infrastructure; we were just ready to grow," says Pam White, executive director of NPP.

The NPP decided to work with elementary and middle-school children in an attempt to influence them to adopt positive life goals and discourage them from using illegal substances. The partnership targeted an area in East Nashville and created after-school programs, mentoring opportunities, attendance initiatives, and safe passages to and from school. The result was that both test scores and attendance in the targeted area increased.

Bering Strait Community Partnership, Nome, Alaska

Just south of the Arctic Circle, on the shores of the Bering Sea and roughly a hundred miles east of Russia, lies Nome, Alaska. Nome, a city of approximately 4,000 people, is considered the "hub" of the 13 native villages in the Norton Sound Region. Located in Nome, the Bering Strait Community Partnership (BSCP) grew out of the Interagency Child Advocates for Norton Sound (ICANS), a task force of Nome-based organizations including representatives from Kewarek -- a Native Alaskan regional non-profit corporation -- children's services agencies, schools, faith communities, a women's shelter, and local government.

The group met monthly in an effort to begin coordinating social services to the villages. When the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) announced its Community Partnership grants, ICANS recognized an important opportunity for the Norton Sound region. The CSAP grant would enable Nome to develop a community-wide and regional effort to address substance abuse and its related problems. In 1990, the Bering Straits Community Partnership was officially formed when it received a five-year $2.5 million grant from CSAP.

Since its inception, the Partnership has been busy trying to balance the needs of native villages and Nome's needs as a hub community for the region. Most recently, the Partnership has been working with Nome youth to address issues that they have raised. At a youth-led town meeting sponsored by the Partnership, youth identified a need for safe, substance-free space. With help from a variety of community partners, the Partnership staff and youth members created Java Hut, a substance-free coffeehouse designed for youth. The Java Hut, in concert with several other youth initiatives, including a Peer Helper program and a Youth Court, is helping change norms in the community by providing fun, youth-friendly space and activities that are not centered around alcohol or marijuana.

Regional Drug Initiative, Portland, Ore.

"[The Regional Drug Initiative] started with a conversation over coffee between a police captain and a businessman, " says Executive Director Carol Stone. Both were concerned about Portland's emerging drug and gang problems and the subsequent threat to Oregon's highly prized quality of life. With involvement and organizational initiative from Michael Schrunk, the District Attorney, and Mayor Bud Clark, a group of Portland power brokers was assembled to discuss ways of working together to address this problem.

"Portland was really awash in drugs," according to Michael Schrunk. As a result, the police department was in turmoil, as were schools and treatment services. Mr. Schrunk sent letters to top level leaders in many arenas -- the school district, law enforcement agencies, communities of faith, and business -- and invited them to attend a meeting in October 1986. By December 1986, Regional Drug Initiative (RDI) had assembled a task force of community leaders and had dedicated itself to working on Portland's substance abuse and related problems. By the end of 1986 RDI had received over $20,000 in private donations from the Portland Trailblazers and other corporations, and had received additional city and county funding.

Since its inception, RDI has promoted the establishment of drug-free workplaces among the city's large and small employers. The coalition is a leader -- not only in Oregon but also nationally -- in assisting businesses to establish drug-free workplaces. Of particular note is RDI's success in bringing labor organizations and corporate management to the same table to create drug-free workplace policies with which both sides felt comfortable. Working together, these two constituencies created a publication, Labor and Management Working Together for a Drug-Free Workplace. Kaiser Permanente and RDI partnered to distribute the guidelines nationally and to provide seminars to Kaiser's employer members as a means of controlling health care costs.

Additionally, over 3,000 employers have attended an RDI training session on building drug-free workplaces, and of those, 92 percent have instituted drug-free workplace policies. This has resulted in a decrease of 5.5 percent in positive workplace drug-tests.

San Antonio Fighting Back, San Antonio, Texas

Based on a growing awareness about the ravages of substance abuse and related violence, Dolph Brisco, a former Texas governor, and Leonard Lawrence, associate dean of the University of Texas Medical School, submitted a proposal to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 1990 to address these issues. The foundation awarded them a two-year planning grant to assess the situation in San Antonio and to develop an action plan based on their findings. In 1992, with a five-year implementation grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, San Antonio Fighting Back was founded.

San Antonio Fighting Back's primary mission is to be a catalyst to address substance abuse, crime and violence. Although the coalition has tackled a range of community-identified problems, its focus on substance abuse and related problems has always been in the forefront of the coalition's work. What has changed, noted Jennifer Richardson, San Antonio Fighting Back's deputy director, is "the way we go about achieving the mission." After the coalition garnered the community's trust, San Antonio Fighting Back was able to enlist the community to support the coalition's efforts.

The coalition's efforts have been numerous. One of their most successful efforts was the campaign to increase the age at which youth first used illegal substances. Based on research, the organization learned that the later the age of first use, the less likely a young person is to become a regular substance abuser.

Fighting Back staff and community members drafted a plan that included four strategies: influence youths attitudes about drugs through the media; build self-esteem and drug resistance skills in youth and reinforce those through a mentoring relationship; provide safe places for youth after school; and create a healthy, educational forum for youth in the summer. The result was that age of first illegal drug use increased from 9.4 years old in 1992 to 13.5 years old in 1997.

Troy Community Coalition for the Prevention of Drug and Alcohol Abuse,Troy, Mich.

Troy, Mich., prides itself on being a peaceful, prosperous and diverse suburb of its somewhat stormier neighbor, Detroit. In 1985, however, the Troy School District began to notice problems subtly creeping into the fabric of Troy life. There was a noticeable spike in school district data describing student substance abuse, particularly alcohol. The school district created a three-pronged approach to address the problem: implement a new health and peer pressure resistance program; develop a parent group; and create a community program. It was this community program that developed into the Troy Community Coalition for the Prevention of Drug and Alcohol Abuse.

Around the same time as Troy's concern about substance abuse was on the rise, Senator Carl Levin came through town as part of a tour promoting the opportunities available through the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP). Spurred on by Senator Levin's encouragement, the district applied for and received a $1.3 million grant from CSAP. With this grant, the coalition hired a full-time director and was off and running.

Since that time, the coalition has had numerous successes. One of the most significant is the work that the group has done to curb a disturbing increase in the rates of alcohol use by Troy teens. Using its "multiple strategies over multiple sectors" approach, the coalition worked with many partners to address this problem. Physicians began to work with parents to help them understand the problems associated with underage drinking. At the same time, coaches spoke to their teams about the same issue from a different perspective. The police made an increased effort to regulate the shelving of alcohol and the sale of liquor to underage individuals, and wrote a letter to parents directing their attention to the problem of underage drinking. The coalition ran programs such as the Youth Academy in schools in order to provide a safe and educational forum where teens could direct their energy.

The results of this effort to reduce teenage drinking was that the rate of 12th-grade students who reported consuming alcohol in the past month decreased from 62.1 percent to 53.3 percent between 1991 and 1998. During the same time period, the rate of 8th-grade students who reported consuming alcohol during the past month decreased from 26.3 percent to 17.4 percent. The coalition believes that this decline represents not only a change in behavior on the part of students, but also a change in the norms of the community.

Source: CADCA