Parent Alert February 2022
How Prevention Creates Transformation
The Seven Strategies for Community Change
What are the Seven Strategies for Community Change?
CADCA (Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America) provides all Coalitions with a guide to strategize our substance misuse prevention efforts. This guide is called the “Seven Strategies for Community Change”. (See this fact sheet for a helpful visual.)
The seven strategies are the following:
1. Provide information: Educating community members on prevention topics through one-way information sharing, for example, articles, newsletters, brochures, social media, advertisements, presentations, and campaigns.
2. Build skills: Exchanging two-way information with the community with the goal of developing various abilities. Examples include workshops, Q & A discussions, and trainings.
3. Provide support: Utilizing Coalition resources to support local partners, schools, youth activities, and parents by providing funding, transportation, equipment, and training.
4. Change barriers/access: Focusing on increasing barriers and decreasing youth access to substances by providing alcohol vendor training, increasing law enforcement, and supporting school drug policy changes.
5. Change consequences/incentives: Providing positive incentives for healthy behaviors and negative consequences for unhealthy behaviors. Examples include lower insurance costs for alcohol vendors who participate in trainings and increasing citations for violations.
6. Alter physical design of environment: Changing the environment to alter behavior, such as increasing prevention signage, decreasing alcohol signage near schools, adding more lighting in parks, etc.
7. Change policies, rules, practices, and procedures: Participating in advocacy in local, state, and federal government to change policies such as social host liability, school drug policies, alcohol permits, funding for family services, and more.
Turning Point Coalition of Orrville often utilizes local billboards for prevention messaging, which would fall in the “physical design” category.
How Can You Get Involved?
1. Like a Facebook Page:
2. Sign up for an email list. Email coalitionscommunication@gmail.com and ask to be added to one of the following:
- Turning Point Coalition of Orrville
- CIRCLE Coalition of Wooster
- Rittman SALT Coalition
3. Share information with friends and family:
- Tag them in Facebook posts
- Forward parent alerts
- Share Coalition websites
4. Come to a Coalition meeting:
- Sign up for email updates above to receive Coalition meeting information!
5. Write a legislator:
- Find your legislator and more information at Prevention Action Alliance’s website.
6. Volunteer at events:
- If you sign up for our email updates, you will receive regular requests for volunteers at our upcoming events!
7. Join a Coalition:
- If you are interested in joining a Coalition, please email us at coalitionscommunication@gmail.com.
Rittman SALT Coalition and CIRCLE Coalition of Wooster teamed up in September of 2021 to provide a panel discussion event on local youth substance use concerns and asset building for families, which would fall under the “build skills” category.
Thank you for being a vital part of our community!
Copyright © 2022 Rittman SALT Coalition. All rights reserved.
Our mailing address is:
Rittman SALT Coalition
c/o 104 Spink St.
Wooster, OH 44691
coalitionscommunication@gmail.com