Community Action for Healthy Living (CAHL) was formerly known as Community Action for Tobacco Free Living, and serves Outagamie County, Calumet County, and the City of Appleton. The coalition voted to change the name from Community Action for Tobacco Free Living to Community Action for Healthy Living at their March 2009 meeting.
Facing the potential loss of state funds, the coalition applied for and received a federal Drug Free Community Support Program (DFCSP) Grant in 2003 to sustain its tobacco prevention efforts. At this time Coalition members who were interested in working on alcohol, marijuana, and other substance abuse prevention efforts mandated by the federal grant formed a DFCSP subcommittee within CAFTFL to tackle these issues. After engaging in strategic planning that concluded early in 2009, the members formally integrated the DFCSP goals and objectives into the primary scope of the coalition thus prompting them to change the name and revise its mission and vision.
Mission, Vision, Values of Community Action for Healthy Living
Mission: To reduce tobacco, alcohol, and other substance abuse and exposure while promoting healthy lifestyles.
Vision:
Collaborative efforts that empower our communities will create the conditions that produce transformational change promoting healthy and safe living in our environment.
Values: We believe that safe and healthy living is accomplished through:
- Education and awareness
- Youth Empowerment
- Collaborative Partnerships
- Responsible Public Policy
- Personal responsibility and positive community role models
- An inclusive, diverse process
- Prevention
- An environment that supports healthy choices
Structure and Operations of Community Action for Healthy Living (CAHL)
Governance:
CAHL has a Board of Directors made up of community volunteers who provide oversight to the work of the coalition.
Membership:
Since its inception, more than 200 members have been involved in coalition initiatives.
Funding:
(2001 to 2008) Funding from the Wisconsin Tobacco Prevention & Control Program administered by the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, to Outagamie County and contracted to United Way Fox Cities.
(Oct. 1, 2003 thru Sept. 30, 2008) A five-year federal Drug Free Communities Support Program Grant of $100,000 per year for a five-year total of $500,000 with United Way Fox Cities serving as the fiscal agent for the grant.
(Oct. 1, 2009 thru Sept. 30, 2014) A five-year Drug Free Communities Support Program Grant of $125,000 per year for a five-year total of $625,000. A coalition can only receive Drug Free Communities Support Program funding for a total of 10 years. Thus, CAHL will essentially begin its sixth year as a Drug Free Communities grantee with the Cooperative Educational Service Agency #6 (CESA 6) serving as the fiscal agent. Also, the Drug Free Communities Support Program follows a federal fiscal year cycle, which runs from Oct. 1 thru Sept. 30.
Fiscal Agent:
Outagamie County has been the fiscal agent for the Wisconsin Division of Public Health Tobacco Prevention and Control Grant Contract since 2001. Because it serves two counties, the City of Appleton, and several community agencies, it was decided to contract with United Way to ensure that the coalition was community based.
From 2001-2008, United Way Fox Cities processed the salaries and benefits of the Coalition staff as well as the day-to-day expenditures for the Coalition's initiatives thru a contract with Outagamie County using Wisconsin Division of Public Health Tobacco and Prevention and Control Grant Funds and Drug-Free Community Support Program funding. Dollars contributed to United Way Fox Cities were never used to support the activities of the Coalition.
On January 1, 2009, Valley Packaging took over as employer of the Coalition staff and Outagamie County administers the day-to-day expenditures for the Coalition. (Name change to CAHL)
The fiscal agent for the Drug Free Communities Support Program Grant is Cooperative Educational Services Association 6. (CESA 6)
CAHL and the Drug Free Community Support Program (DFCSP) Grant
As stated above, Community Action for Healthy Living (CAHL) will begin its sixth year as a federal Drug Free Communities grantee on October 1st, 2009.
What is the Drug Free Communities Support Program?
The Drug Free Communities Support Program was created by the Drug Free Communities Act of 1997, and was reauthorized by Congress in 2001 and 2006. The program is directed by the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) in partnership with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
As stated on the ONDCP website (www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov):
"This anti-drug program [DFCSP] provides grants of up to $125,000 to community coalitions that mobilize their communities to prevent youth alcohol, tobacco, illicit drug, and inhalant abuse. The grants support coalitions of youth; parents; media; law enforcement; school officials; faith-based organizations; fraternal organizations; State, local, and tribal government agencies; healthcare professionals; and other community representatives. The Drug Free Communities Support Program enables the coalitions to strengthen their coordination and prevention efforts, encourage citizen participation in substance abuse reduction efforts, and disseminate information about effective programs."
Coalitions are required to utilize environmental strategies:
As articulated in the Federal Requests for Applications for DFCSP:
Environmental strategies seek to: (1) limit access to substances, (2) change the culture and context within which decisions about substance use are made, and/or (3) reduce the prevalence of negative consequences associated with substance use (such as motor vehicle crashes, sexual assaults, etc.).
Federal funding in a DFC grant is to strengthen the capacity of coalitions to reduce and prevent youth substance use in the community by generating positive, lasting environmental change.
CAHL's Two Goals for the Drug Free Communities Support Program:
1. Establish and strengthen collaboration among communities to prevent and reduce substance abuse among youth.
2. Reduce substance abuse among youth and, over time, among adults by addressing the factors in communities that increase the risk of substance abuse and promoting the factors that minimize the risk of substance abuse.
Evidence-based environmental strategies adopted by CAHL to achieve its DFCSP Goals:
Background: According to the DFCSP Request for Applications "Environmental strategies are based on the belief that substance abuse is a product of multiple environmental conditions and circumstances. According to this view, individuals do not engage in substance abuse solely on the basis of personal characteristics, but rather as a result of a complex set of factors in their environment. These include: the rules and regulations of the social institutions to which individuals belong, the norms of the communities in which they live, the mass media messages to which they are exposed, and the accessibility of alcohol, tobacco and illicit drugs. Therefore, effective prevention requires "intervention" in various facets of community life that are designed to change individuals and the environment in which they live (Catalogue of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) No.: 93.276)."
To comply with the requirements of the DFCSP grant, CAHL employs the Strategic Prevention Framework, a planning process developed by SAMHSA, to help identify evidence-based environmental strategies for reducing underage drinking, tobacco use, and marijuana use.
CAHL will utilize a comprehensive approach that employs a variety of evidence-based environmental strategies to reduce youth access as well as the appeal of these substances to youth:
- Promote and support vigorous enforcement of existing underage drinking and tobacco laws
- Retail compliance checks
- Implement mass media education campaigns aimed at both adults and youth
- Promote and support restrictions (limitations and controls) on alcohol advertising and availability at public events
- Promote and support alcohol and tobacco free environments at youth and family events
- Encourage retailers to advertise and market alcohol and tobacco products responsibly. As a starting point, encourage alcohol retailers to adopt the marketing and advertising codes of the Beer Institute and the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, Inc.
Sources used in researching evidence-based environmental strategies:
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention: www.udetc.org/About.htm
Institute of Medicine: www.iom.edu/CMS/12552/13838/15100.aspx
University of Minnesota Alcohol Epidemiology Program: www.epi.umn.edu/alcohol/
RAND Corporation: www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR403/
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration: www.nhtsa.dot.gov
University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute: http://whatworksforhealth.wisc.edu/
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: www.cdc.gov/tobacco/stateandcommunity/index.htm
The Community Guide (CDC): www.thecommunityguide.org
Why is CAHL focused on preventing substance abuse in Outagamie County?
Preventing substance abuse is both a national and state priority.
„
The Surgeon General's Call to Action to Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking, 2007, "Underage alcohol consumption is a major societal problem with enormous health and safety consequences and will demand the Nation's attention and committed efforts to solve." (http://www.surgeongeneral.gov)
Healthy People 2010, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' 10-year health objectives for the Nation includes the following objectives:
- Reduce cigarette smoking by adolescents
- Increase proportion of adolescents not using alcohol or any illicit drugs during the past 30 days.
(http://www.healthypeople.gov)
Wisconsin State Health Plan, Healthiest Wisconsin 2010, includes the following objectives:
- Reduce the percentage of youth who report binge drinking in the past 30 days.
- Reduce the percentage of youth who report using marijuana in the past 30 days.
- Reduce the percentage of youth who report using tobacco in the past 30 days.
- Reduce the percentage of youth who report first use of alcohol prior to age 13.
- Reduce the percentage of youth who report first use of marijuana prior to age 13.
- Reduce the percent of middle-school youth who use tobacco.
- Reduce the percent of high-school youth who use tobacco.
(http://dhs.wisconsin.gov/statehealthplan/)
The following sheds some light on the impact of substance abuse in Outagamie County:
Wisconsin Office of Justice Assistance Arrests in Wisconsin 2007 (http://oja.state.wi.us) In Outagamie County, among juveniles:
- 22 arrests made for Operating While Intoxicated
- 515 arrests for liquor law violations
- 13 arrests for the sale and manufacturing of marijuana
- 135 arrests for marijuana possession.
In Outagamie County, among adults:
- 1,549 arrests made for Operating While Intoxicated
- 1,348 arrests for liquor law violations
- 43 arrests for the sale and manufacturing of marijuana
- 341 arrests for marijuana possession
In Outagamie County:
- 252 juveniles were arrested for simple assault and 33 for aggravated assault
- 577 adults were arrested for simple assault and 145 for aggravated assault
*In 1998, the U.S. Department of Justice released the report Alcohol and Crime in which it estimated that two-thirds of victims who suffered violence by a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend reported that alcohol had been a factor, and an estimated 31% of stranger victimizations where the victim could determine the absence or presence of alcohol were perceived to be alcohol-related (www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs).
According to the 2009 Threat Assessment by the Lake Winnebago Area Metropolitan Enforcement Group (LWAN): Marijuana continues to be the most readily available drug in the LWAM jurisdiction, and also continues to be the most widely used drug in the Fox Cities (www.co.winnebago.wi.us/LWAM/).
According to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services, Wisconsin Epidemiological Profile on Alcohol and Other Drug Use, 2008;
- There were 1,191 alcohol-related hospitalizations among Outagamie County residents in 2006;
- From 1999-2006, an average of 6 Outagamie County residents died each year due to alcohol-related liver cirrhosis;
- From 1999-2006, an average of 19 Outagamie County residents died of alcohol-related causes not counting alcohol-related liver cirrhosis and motor vehicle crashes. (http://dhs.wisconsin.gov)
Youth Risk Behavior Survey: One of the primary sources of data measuring attitudes and behaviors around substance use is the Youth Risk Behavior Survey. 4,604 students in grades 9-12, from 7 school districts in Outagamie County (OC) completed the survey during the 07/08 school year.
|
Grade 9 |
Grade 10 |
Grade 11 |
Grade 12 |
|
Drank alcohol in past 30 days |
22.3 |
33.4 |
36.3 |
57.3 |
|
Drank 5+ drinks of alcohol in one sitting in past 30 days |
11.1 |
20.2 |
25.5 |
41.5 |
|
Drove after drinking alcohol in past 30 days |
5.1 |
7.3 |
11.4 |
19.6 |
|
Smoked cigarettes in past 30 days |
8.1 |
13.4 |
18.8 |
22.1 |
|
Used marijuana in past 30 days |
7.7 |
12.4 |
17.1 |
20.5 |
|
Used cocaine in the past 30 days |
3.0 |
3.7 |
4.4 |
6.7 |
|
Ever inhaled chemical vapors to get high |
8.9 |
9.9 |
8.8 |
6.8 |
|
Ever used heroin |
2.2 |
3.5 |
3.3 |
3.8 |
|
Ever used Ecstasy |
5.3 |
8.3 |
11.2 |
14.4 |
|
Ever used methamphetamine |
3.1 |
5.2 |
5.6 |
5.9 |
|
Ever used a prescription painkiller without a doctor's prescription |
13.2 |
16.4 |
19.0 |
24.7 |
|
Ever used a prescription drug like Ritalin, Adderall or Xanax without a doctor's prescription |
9.9 |
11.6 |
15.8 |
20.5 |
While data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey highlight the need for prevention efforts to target all substances, alcohol, tobacco and marijuana rise to the top as priorities based on the fact that the past 30-day use rates of these three substances exceed the lifetime rates of other illicit drugs.
The Big Picture
A focus of public health prevention efforts must be our children: 17 years of research at CASA have shown that a child who reaches age 21 without smoking, using illicit drugs or abusing alcohol is virtually certain never to do so. ~ National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University
Each year, drug abuse and addiction cost taxpayers nearly $534 billion in preventable health care, law enforcement, crime, and other costs. ~ National Institute on Drug Abuse
People who reported starting to drink before the age of 15 were four times more likely to also report meeting the criteria for alcohol dependence at some point in their lives. In fact, new research shows that the serious drinking problems (including what is called alcoholism) typically associated with middle age actually begin to appear much earlier, during young adulthood and even adolescence. ~ National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
Almost 90 percent of adult smokers began at or before age 18. Based on data from a government drug use survey, researchers concluded that teens who smoke are nine times more likely to abuse alcohol and 13 times more likely to abuse illegal drugs than teens who don't smoke. ~ Office of the Surgeon General
Prevention is cost-effective. Research has demonstrated that research-based drug abuse prevention programs are cost-effective. Each dollar invested in prevention achieves a savings of up to $7 in areas such as substance abuse treatment and criminal justice system costs, not to mention their wider impact on the trajectory of young lives and their families. ~ National Institute on Drug Abuse
Community Action For Healthy Living
(920) 954-7404 or (920) 954-7409
P.O. Box 1192
Appleton, WI 54912-1192
