Mendocino County Asset Building Coalition
Drug Free Communities Project Year Nine and Stop Act Project Year Two

Executive Summary

The Mendocino County Asset Building Coalition (ABC) serves the 30,000 residents of the Ukiah community with the overall purpose of effecting community level changes in a culture in which youth use of alcohol and illegal drugs is a widely accepted norm. The ABC is now in its tenth year of providing vision, direction, and coordination for the prevention activities undertaken by its members and is currently the grantee for two complementary SAMHSA prevention grants—a Drug Free Communities (DFC) Support Program grant and a Sober Truth On Prevention (STOP) of Underage Drinking Program grant. Activities supported by these two grants are coordinated by the same staff and implemented through integrated programming. SAMHSA’s DFC Program is designed to establish and strengthen collaboration and community involvement toward the goal of preventing and reducing substance abuse among youth. Year Nine DFC strategies included:

• Raising supplementary funding to sustain Coalition prevention activities.
• Increasing member capacity through professional development opportunities focused on environmental prevention, and normative education.
• Conducting a social norms survey of Ukiah high school students.
• Developing a normative education campaign to correct misperceptions about AOD norms among local youth.

The overall goal of the ABC's STOP grant is to produce changes in school culture, community culture, and family culture that reduce underage alcohol use. Year Two strategies to address STOP goals included:

• Raising supplementary funding to sustain Coalition prevention activities.
• Building Coalition capacity to better reach the Hispanic community.
• Increasing member capacity through professional development opportunities focused on environmental prevention, normative education, and underage drinking.
• Extracting data from the California Healthy Kids Survey to develop a normative education campaign to correct misperceptions about underage alcohol use.
• Surveying and mapping alcohol outlets and disseminating results.

Both projects target community-level change in youth knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors around alcohol and other drugs. For participating students, the project also serves as an effective prevention strategy during high-risk after school hours.

Accomplishments and Key Findings

Project data were collected through program reports, observation of coordination meetings, coordinator reports, and a variety of surveys.

• The ABC was restructured to increase participation and engagement. Changes included moving from a quarterly to a bi-monthly meeting schedule and incorporating a number of standing agenda items.
• The ABC was awarded continuation funding for three prevention grants that support ABC priorities, as well as a new grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety.
• ABC members had the opportunity to participate in eight trainings during Coalition meetings.
• The ABC partnered with the Arbor on Main Youth Resource Center, a program of Redwood Children’s Services, to conduct a social norms survey and develop the Exposing The Truth bilingual normative education campaign.
• ABC outreach to the Hispanic community included the development of normative education messages in both Spanish and English and the inclusion of Latino youth on the normative education team.
• Through the Mapping Alcohol Outlets activity, the ABC worked with the PAPU Data Analyst to develop maps showing:
1. alcohol off- and on-sale outlets, schools, parks, and public intoxication arrests; and
2. alcohol off-sale outlets, schools, parks, and population living below the poverty level.
This information is being presented to local policymaking bodies.

• The ABC used normative education messages to design and carry out a media campaign that included radio PSAs, placards on the exterior of a Mendocino Transit Authority bus, and banners at local sports venues.
• When comparing 2003 results with the most recent results from 2009, California Healthy Kids Survey (CHKS) results showed small drops in past 30-day use of most substances, although tobacco use increased considerably among high school students. Among 9th graders, there were decreases of 19% in past 30-day alcohol use and 8% in binge drinking, while marijuana use increased by 11% and tobacco use increased by 200% (from 4% to 12%). Among 11th graders, there were decreases of 4% in past 30-day alcohol use, 12% in binge drinking, and 29% in marijuana use, while tobacco use increased by 40%.
• Changes in perception of harm differed by grade level, with 7th and 11th graders’ perception of harm falling, while 9th graders increased their perception of harm of alcohol use by 2%.
• Data from the Social Norms Survey show that most students have very elevated perceptions of their peers’ AOD use, and inhalants are the only substance for which at least 50% of youth were able to provide accurate estimates of their peers’ use levels.