LEARN TO GROW INC. POLICY, SYSTEMS, AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE STRATEGIES

1. LEARN TO GROW INC. POLICY, SYSTEMS, AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE STRATEGIES Presented by: Tyrone Bell and Denise Smith

2. That’s Me!

4. Learning Objectives • Understanding of prevention in the community by changing social norms • Understanding the difference between community level change and programs • How to effectively work with local and state entities

5. Public Health • The science and art of disease, disability, and injury prevention and control in the human population • Public Health focuses on preventing diseases, prolonging life, and promoting physical and mental health through organized community efforts • Public Health is what we, as a society, do collectively to ensure that people can be healthy • Prevention tries to prevent a disease or condition before it occurs (such as pre-natal care, nutrition education and injury prevention

6. In Summary …

7. Prevention Activities • Prevention tries to prevent a disease or condition before it occurs • Affordable Healthcare • Safe Ride Home programs • Smoking Cessation • Pre-natal care • Nutrition education Prevention requires a shift from implementing individual programs to a prevention design focused on population level change …

8. Seven Strategies to affect community level change • Provide Information: Educational presentations, workshops or seminars, and data or media presentations • Enhance skills-Workshops, seminars or activities designed to increase the skills of participants, members and staff • Provide support- creating opportunities to support people to participate in activities that reduce risk or enhance protection • Enhance access/reduce barriers- improving systems and processes to increase the ease, ability and opportunity to utilize systems and services

9. Seven Strategies to affect community level change • Change consequences (incentives/disincentives) – increasing or decreasing the probability of a specific behavior that reduce risk or enhances protection by altering the consequences for performing that behavior • Change physical design – Changing the physical design or structure of the environment to reduce risk or enhance protection • Modify / Change policies - Formal changes in written procedures, bi-laws, proclamations. Rules or laws with written documentation and/or voting procedures

10. Policy Change • Policies are aimed to change the condition in an environment. • Policy relates to laws, regulations or ordinances both formal and informal that are adopted on a collective basis to guide individual and collective behavior • Policy change can be a change in or enforcement of existing policies

11. Policy Change • Identify a problem in the community • Collect data • Engage the community • Identify key stakeholders • Involve the community in the process • Capacity building • Identify and modify existing policy or ordinances that affect problem • Educate elected officials

12. Policy Change • Underage drinking • Need for RASS ordinance • No current policy • Documentation of problem • i.e. compliance check results • Present problem to officials and retailers

13. The Process…

14. Systems • Once policy is passed, now the system has to change. • A system is a group of independent but interrelated elements (i.e. individuals, institutions and infrastructure) that form a unified whole. • Systems are organizations, retail, parks and recreation, & institution

15. SUCCESSFUL SYSTEMS CHANGES IN FULTON COUNTY & CITY OF ATLANTA

16. Law Enforcement Systems • Policy will be self enforcing. It is not a priority in the law enforcement system to regulate this ordinance aggressively • Roswell had ordinance for long period of time but no citations

17. Retail systems target youth

18. Systems Change • City of Atlanta Parks and Recreation Centers system change through signage

19. Maintaining Systems • Beyond the limited time period of pilot programs and grants, how are these public health system changes to be sustained? Padgett, S.M., Bekemeier, B., Berkowitz, B., (2005)

20. Environmental Change Strategies ~Environmental Change Strategies seek to establish or change community standards, codes, and attitudes, thereby influencing the incidence and prevalence in a general population

21. What does your Community look Like ???

22. Our Community

23. Environmental Change strategies • Environmental-scans • Physical Design • Sticker shock • Providing information • Compliance checks • Changing consequences • Teen Party Ordinance • Modifying/changing policy • Responsible Beverage Service Training • Enhancing skills

24. Mass Media and Counter Advertising • Billboards

25. Social Media

26. Alternative Activity

27. Longitudinal change

28. Opposition

30. Evidence Based Strategies: CSAP Prevention • Information dissemination: Provides awareness and knowledge of the nature of and the extent of ATOD use, abuse and addiction and their effects on individuals, families and communities • Education: Involves two way communication and is distinguished from information dissemination by the fact that interaction between the educator/facilitator and the participants is the basis of its activities • Alternatives: This strategy provides for the participation of target populations in activities that exclude substance use. Approaches to protect youth. Provides for the participation of target groups in activities that exclude ATOD use (e.g. athletics; art; music; community service projects)

31. Evidence Based Strategies: CSAP Prevention • Problem identification and referral: Identification of those who have indulged in illegal or age-inappropriate use of alcohol or tobacco and those individuals who have indulged in the first use of illicit drugs to assess if their behavior can be reversed through education • Community-based process: This strategy aims to enhance the ability of the community to more effectively provide prevention and treatment services for substance abuse disorders. • Environmental: Establishes or changes written and unwritten community standards, codes, and attitudes, thereby influencing incidence and prevalence of ATOD use and abuse in the general population

32. IN SUMMARY

33. Individual VS. Community(Public Health) • Affects change in one person • Individual level • Non-sustaining • Relying on self change • Short-term behavior change may relapse • Affects change in many people & cultures • Policy level • Sustaining • Involve system changes • Behavior Change over time

34. PLANNING PSE CHANGE INTERVENTIONS • Conduct a needs assessment • Use existing data • Engage the target population • Do Not Reinvent the Wheel • Build on existing programs • Educate staff, partners, and target population • Purpose • Disease Prevention • The interventions (PSE activities and strategies) • Involve individuals and organizations with common goals

35. Let’s Make This Successful • Build Strong Partnerships-Capacity Building • Start Slowly (it’s a marathon not a sprint) • Keep People Engaged & Interested • Action Plan • Evaluation • Sustainability • Cultural Competency

36. Thank You Questions ?

37. Contact Us www.learntogrow.org www.heartcoalition.com www.learntogrow.info www.heartcoalition.info www.youtube.com/LearnToGrowInc www.twitter.com/learntogrowinc tbell@learntogrow.org dsmith@learntogrow.org ngilliam@learntogrow.org