A DESCRIPTIVE STUDY OF PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION AMONG A GROUP OF HIGH ACHIEVING COALITIONS IN THE DRUG-FREE COMMUNITIES SUPPORT PROGRAM

Abstract

Substance abuse is a pervasive public health problem that affects all people and communities, regardless of socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity. Substance abuse can particularly devastate youth, as it correlates with many negative health outcomes including damage to the developing brain, dependence, delinquency, decreased academic potential, DUIs, and death. A potential solution to address these problems is the development and implementation of community coalitions. At the federal level, The Office of National Drug Control Policy's (ONDCP) Drug-Free Communities (DFC) Support Program does this through distributing competitive grants to eligible community coalitions that organize to prevent youth substance abuse. This descriptive study examines the degree of agreement between activities of 12 high achieving DFC coalitions to determine best practices. The analysis of the similarities and differences between the program implementation activities determined that 6 activities were universally present among high achieving coalitions, 10 activities has high agreement, and 33 activities to have low agreement among the coalitions. This paper aims to increase the knowledge about high achieving DFCs to help inform policies and practices for communities to reduce youth substance use.