[BoulderCouncilHotline] Additional info on prevention activities

[Firnhaber, Kurt]

Dear City Council,



At your study session on Tuesday you asked for further information on metrics and outcomes related to prevention and education efforts supported by recreational marijuana (RMJ) sales tax revenues. I am sending along information on the progress towards achievement of benchmarks and outcomes for the Substance Education and Awareness (SEA) program. Through the SEA program, the City allocates RMJ sales tax revenue to comprehensive substance awareness and prevention programming.



>From 2014 through 2018, Council appropriated $250,000 annually from RMJ revenues for purposes identified in BRC 3-14-1. In 2015, Council authorized the city manager to release an RFP for integrated substance abuse prevention education programs, including all commonly abused substances in addition to recreational marijuana, aimed at children, youth and families. In 2016, the city released an RFP inviting proposals to develop and implement community-wide information and educational programs, with a consistent message for children, youth, families and the community related to the impacts of drug and alcohol use on children and youth.



In response to the RFP, the city selected Boulder County Community Services (BCCS) as the SEA program contractor. In June 2016 the city executed a five-year contract with BCCS to implement the Substance Education and Awareness (SEA) program contingent on annual funding approvals by City Council and achievement of annual program benchmarks and outcomes. Through the SEA program, the city hoped to achieve four basic goals:

  *   Widespread community distribution and awareness of information and programs;
  *   Shift community perceptions of risk associated with substance use, including the impact of drugs, alcohol, recreational marijuana, and abuse of prescription medications on children and youth;
  *   Prevent/reduce youth abuse of alcohol and recreational drugs including marijuana; and
  *   Reduce accidental ingestion of marijuana and other drugs.


To achieve SEA program goals, the city and BCCS selected subcontractors to implement evidence-based programs or promising practices that could increase youth awareness, increase perceptions of risk and prevent substance use and abuse. In Oct. 2016, the department contracted with OMNI Institute, a social science evaluation firm, to independently evaluate the SEA program. In consultation with the department, OMNI developed an evaluation plan to assess subcontractor work and measure progress towards achievement of SEA program goals. The evaluation plan includes technical assistance to define measurable outputs and outcomes, development of a real-time data dashboard to track program deliverables and annual reports to document and assess progress.


SEA PROGRAM ACTIVITIES
SEA program activities fit into four prevention strategies defined by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA<https://www.samhsa.gov/>) Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP). Those strategies are:

  *   Information dissemination - Provide information about the nature and extent of alcohol and other drug use, abuse, addiction and their effects on individuals, families and communities. Provide knowledge and increase awareness about available prevention and treatment programs and services.
  *   Education - Build skills through structured learning processes. Critical life and social skills include decision making, peer resistance, coping with stress, problem solving, interpersonal communication and systematic and judgmental capabilities.
  *   Alternatives - Provide opportunities for target populations to participate in activities that exclude alcohol and other drugs.
  *   Community-based process - Provide ongoing networking activities and technical assistance to community groups or agencies.

At the start of the project, BCCS and subcontractors developed shared messaging that could be used to strengthen SEA program activities. The messaging aligns with the statewide  "Good to Know" campaign and is intended to reach several targeted audiences including parents and youth. The shared SEA message customizes and amplifies components of "Good to Know" and includes tailored components for the specific target audiences served by each SEA subcontractor.
In 2017, BCCS and SEA began fully implementing programs and strategies. BCCS and SEA subcontractors met quarterly with city staff to provide progress reports and regularly coordinate with other community partners engaged in prevention activities. BCCS also developed a private YouTube channel to share SEA message materials with subcontractors, partners and community members.

SEA funding supported the following specific subcontractor activities in 2017:

  *   YMCA of Boulder Valley used SEA funding to enhance peer social support programs for teens. In 2017, the YMCA conducted eight pro-social events and three service learning projects for City of Boulder youth.
  *   The YMCA used SEA funding for its "You Make a Difference" campaign for adult influencers. Through the campaign, the YMCA trained 90 percent of all staff who work with youth and 80 percent of sports coaches and preschool and school-age program instructors.

  *   Boulder County Public Health's "Break the Cycle" program used SEA funding for group sessions for clients. Break the Cycle utilizes peer-based group intervention to prevent initiation of injection drug use.
  *   Boulder County Public Health used SEA funding to support its "Out of Reach<https://www.bouldercounty.org/families/addiction/out-of-reach/>" safe storage campaign. This mixed media campaign utilized digital advertising and placards on Boulder County busses to educate parents about safely storing marijuana and other substances.
  *   The Boulder Valley School District used SEA funding to implement the Sources of Strength<https://sourcesofstrength.org/> program at Casey, Centennial, Manhattan, Platt and Southern Hills middle schools. Each school completed two peer leader messaging events.

  *   The Boulder Valley School District used SEA funding to help launch the EFFEKT<http://www.blueprintsprograms.com/factsheet/effekt> program in Casey, Centennial, and Southern Hills middle schools. EFFEKT is an evidence-based positive youth development program designed to reduce youth alcohol consumption. SEA funding helped support educator trainings and update training modules with national and local data.
  *   El Centro Amistad used SEA funding to provide weekly Teen Outreach Program (TOP<http://wymancenter.org/TOP/>)  sessions for City of Boulder Latino youth. TOP empowers at-risk teens with tools and opportunities needed to avoid risky behaviors and become community leaders. Amistad also used SEA funding to host a Youth and Parent Prevention Conference.
  *   OMNI Institute trained and engaged coalition partners in outcome data collection designed to fulfill on the SEA program objectives. OMNI also conducted a coalition partner survey and launched the SEA data dashboard.
SEA funding also supported processes aimed at building collaboration among community partners, enhancing subcontractor capacity, improving subcontractor training about substance use prevention and enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of services. Boulder County Public Health's CSAP program used SEA funds to provide technical support for SEA subcontractors and provided education opportunities for subcontractor staff including the Substance Abuse Prevention Skills Training (SAPST). The SAPST is a 40-hour course that provides a broad orientation to the field of substance use prevention and covers evidence-based process of the Strategic Prevention Framework: assessment, capacity building, prevention planning, implementation, evaluation, sustainability, and cultural competence.

OMNI created a  SEA Public Data Dashboard<https://sea.omni.org/rdPage.aspx?rdReport=Reports.PublicReport> in 2017 to track output data. Subcontractors are using the dashboard to collect annual metrics that demonstrate changes in knowledge, skills, attitudes or behavior of program participants.


In 2018, BCCS discontinued relationships with several subcontractors who no longer wished to participate in the SEA program and ended a project with one subcontractor that failed to meet contractual requirements. In April, BCCS used SEA funding to support the Colorado Speak Now shared messaging campaign. The two-month media campaign, timed to coincide with prom season, graduation and early summer, provided targeted messaging for youth and adult influencers throughout Colorado. The City's SEA funding supported additional media placements in the Boulder market including radio and TV ads, bus ads, online displays, advertisements on Pandora and print and digital ads with local newspapers.



PROGRAM PROGRESS
Since 2016, SEA-funded programs have directly reached approximately 2100 Boulder youth and adult influencers. SEA-funded media campaigns have made an estimated 5.2 million impressions in the Boulder market. OMNI submitted its first-year evaluation report. Its findings were limited in scope because it was difficult to assess changes in community-wide outcome metrics over a single year of programming. Additionally, much of the SEA implementation work in 2017 was intended to lay the foundation for a strong collaboration among subcontractors and develop infrastructure for tracking progress made toward SEA program goals. As a result, the evaluation mostly captured information about processes completed by subcontractors, output data about the number of City of Boulder residents served and successes and challenges among individual subcontractors.  It provided limited information about progress towards achievement of most SEA program goals.



OMNI concluded that the City is making progress toward its first SEA program goal of widespread community distribution and awareness of information and programs. Additionally, the evaluation found that subcontractors are learning and distributing shared messaging to the community and have developed partnerships that will strengthen their collective information dissemination in future years.



OMNI determined that additional data is needed to assess progress toward the other three SEA program goals:

  *   Shift in community perceptions of risk associated with substance use, including the impact of drugs, alcohol, recreational marijuana, and abuse of prescription medications on children and youth;
  *   Prevent/reduce you abuse of alcohol and recreational drugs including marijuana; and
  *   Reduce accidental ingestion of marijuana and other drugs.



To obtain the data needed to fully evaluate progress toward all program goals, in 2018 OMNI will conduct a cross-site evaluation plan to assess subcontractor contributions to the comprehensive SEA program logic model. OMNI will also analyze the types of data collected by each subcontractor and develop metrics to measure subcontractor contributions to the four SEA program goals. OMNI will submit its second-year evaluation report for the SEA project in Sept. 2018.





Future evaluation activities will likely include:

  *   Collection of aggregate community level data related to the four SEA program goals;
  *   A parent survey that would evaluate parents' awareness of SEA community-wide messaging, perceptions of risk associated with substance use, the impact of drugs, alcohol, recreational marijuana, and abuse of prescription medications on children and youth and safe storage behavior; and
  *   A survey subcontractors and community partners to assess collaboration, the dissemination of the SEA messages and successes and challenges with implementation of SEA Program strategies.


NEXT STEPS

In 2018, BCCS and subcontractors will continue activities to further SEA program goals. Specific deliverables will include:

  *   Implementation of a safe storage media and education campaign to reduce accidental ingestion or unintended access for all substances including marijuana, alcohol and prescription drugs;
  *   Distribution of educational information about the nature and extent of alcohol and other drug use, abuse, addiction and the effect on individuals, families and communities;
  *   Distribution of information that increases awareness of available substance use and addiction prevention programs and services;
  *   Implementation of the 'Effekt' program in three City of Boulder BVSD middle schools, to maintain parents' restrictive attitudes toward underage drinking;
  *   Implementation of the 'Sources of Strength' (SOS) program in five City of Boulder BVSD middle schools, to enhance youth protective factors;
  *   Implementation of the 'Teen Outreach Program' (TOP) program targeting BVSD middle school youth to promote health behaviors and protective factors among Latino youth;
  *   Training about substance abuse prevention and positive youth development for all staff, coaches and volunteers of the YMCA of Boulder Valley;
  *   Providing opportunities for at-risk populations among City of Boulder residents to participate in pro-social activities that exclude alcohol and other drugs and for middle school City of Boulder youth to participate in service learning projects; and
  *   Providing, arranging or sponsoring SAPST seminars for all subcontractors of SEA to reinforce consistent messaging and methods and provide technical assistance on coordination and effective service implementation.



Staff are currently engaging in discussions with community stakeholders to leverage $586,000 in unspent RMJ revenue (collected from 2014-2016) to further SEA program goals. A focus for these resource is being developed to look at strengthening substance abuse prevention activities, enhance community capacity for substance abuse intervention and outpatient treatment services and address emerging issues such as opioid addiction.



Thanks,



Kurt



Kurt Firnhaber
Deputy Director of Housing and Interim Director of Human Services
[Planning,%20Housing%2]
Office: 303-441-4424
Cell: 303-917-0914
FirnhaberK at bouldercolorado.gov<mailto:FirnhaberK at bouldercolorado.gov>








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