Kalamazoo County Substance Abuse Task Force

Michigan Nightlight: In your view, what makes your program innovative, effective or remarkable?
Kalamazoo County Substance Abuse Task Force Coordinator Tonya Collins: In July of 2008, Kalamazoo County experienced the 12th opiate-related teenaged death in only 17 months. The countywide issue had reached a crisis level and local community members were ready to take action.
 
In response, the Kalamazoo County Substance Abuse Task Force hosted two call-to-action meetings in September of that year. Over 350 community members attended, and these meetings led to the development of strategy teams to focus on key issues of concern. The strategy teams created goals and researched strategies based on available data, and they developed 12-month action plans.
 
In 2009, the Task Force received the Drug Free Communities Grant, which provided a more sustainable funding stream for

...if you intentionally provide opportunities for people from all different backgrounds in your community to impact an issue, if you invest time to engage and empower them, they will rise to the occasion in ways that not even you could imagine.

its efforts. What makes the task force remarkable is how its members, representing a variety of sectors, pulled together in a time of catastrophe to create an action-oriented coalition that would continue to be a vehicle for change surrounding substance abuse issues.
 
Today, the Kalamazoo County Substance Abuse Task Force has two primary goals: to create lasting collaborative relationships in the community and to reduce youth substance abuse. We have remained effective and innovative since inception because of our diverse membership and volunteer support representing all pockets and sectors of our community -- ranging from political leaders to high school students.
 
What was the best lesson learned in the past year?
The best lesson that we have been reminded of this year is the true value of a collaborative effort, among organizations and community members from all walks of life, to impact a community issue. Substance abuse prevention and reduction is both a health and social issue that is complex by nature. While person-level interventions are necessary to impact people on an individual basis, it is also necessary to implement community-level interventions and strategies that impact the environment where those people live.
 
This year we have seen caring people from a variety of professional and personal backgrounds -- law enforcement, health, education, substance abuse recovery, parents, and youth -- come together to create that community-level change by utilizing their own expertise, talents, and experiences. We have learned that if you intentionally provide opportunities for people from all different backgrounds in your community to impact an issue, if you invest time to engage and empower them, they will rise to the occasion in ways that not even you could imagine. It is easy for us, as substance abuse prevention experts, to do the work ourselves. The more difficult task is organizing diverse groups of community members who step up to the plate to accomplish the work themselves. And when the community does the work for itself, that’s when real change both happens and lasts.
 
What was the hardest lesson learned in the past year?
Community-level change takes time. We live in a world where we want to follow the latest fads and get quick results, but health and social issues like substance abuse require more than a quick fix. It requires dedicated people who can celebrate small successes while working toward a larger goal at a steady pace. This means doing some work that feels mundane at

We live in a world where we want to follow the latest fads and get quick results, but health and social issues like substance abuse require more than a quick fix.

the time, but its work translates into big change in the long run. Keeping folks focused on the big dream, and reminding them of how their efforts today will impact tomorrow, is a constant effort.
 
It can be difficult to keep volunteers, funders and community members motivated to keep long-term prevention efforts a priority, and this can be due to the simple fact that you may not see the full impact of your work for years to come. But when a group is persistent and sticks to the course, change does happen. Kalamazoo County Substance Abuse Task Force is in it for the long haul.
 
What really differentiates this program?
Substance abuse is linked to social and health issues. Issues that affect the lives of everyone in our community in some shape or form, respecting no socioeconomic, ethnic, or faith boundaries.
 
Unlike other effective health prevention programming, the strategies and activities that the Kalamazoo County Substance Abuse Task Force carry out positively impact the environment in which we all live, work and attend school. It strives to reduce negative environmental influences that might put a young person at risk for substance abuse while promoting activities, programs, and policies that create positive opportunities and protective factors for our young people.
 
What are the keys to success for your program?
One important key is staying true to the vision and mission of the Kalamazoo County Substance Abuse Task Force: maintaining good communication with our members and volunteers and celebrating our successes. Also very important is the application of evidence-based practices built on the Strategic Prevention Framework model. This is a fancy way of saying that we are diligent at making sure that our decisions and actions are done in a systematic and strategic manner.
 
And finally, key people. We could not do this work without the talents of the people in our community who are fiercely passionate about substance abuse prevention. They drive our work. They keep our program going.
 
How do you innovate programming? Where do the ideas come from? How do you know if they are going to work?
One great example of this is our Smart Summer campaign. This12-week annual campaign encourages parents to set boundaries, monitor activities, and stay connected to their youth during the summer months, which a season when young people are more likely to engage in high-risk behaviors. This social campaign was created by members of Kalamazoo County Substance Abuse Task Force. In the four years since the campaign was implemented, it has been so successful that neighboring counties are now utilizing Smart Summer.
 
The Kalamazoo County Substance Abuse Task Force researches and develops ideas for workable strategies based on need. We have commissioned a group of members to collect and analyze local data to assess current and future substance abuse prevention needs here in Kalamazoo County.
 
Once they communicate those needs to our action teams, those groups work together to research and develop ideas that will directly target the needs that we see. We can feel confident that by drilling down and using data, we are making a meaningful contribution to addressing youth substance abuse issues.