Partnership For a Drug Free Wayne County

Summary of the Comprehensive Community Plan: The Partnership for a Drug Free Wayne County works each year to accomplish its mission statement through our members and the organizations they represent, the grantees and funded programs, as well as a diverse group of citizens and programs designed to address Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug (ATOD) issues. Our membership has provided a stable foundation for over 21 years in the ATOD arena.

Our members represent Education, Law Enforcement, Judiciary, Treatment, Civic organizations, Business, Government, Prevention, Faith Based Intervention, and Medicine. In 2005 we focused on brining Youth into our local coordinating council for a much needed representation.

For many years now, our plans have been written with a strong emphasis on identified risk and protective factors for Wayne County. We are utilizing the Risk Factor / Protective Factors Approach to Positive Youth Development, a research based strategy approved by the Council for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP). Risk and Protective factor-focused prevention is based on a simple premise: To prevent a problem from happening, we need to identify the factors that increase the risk of that problem developing and then find ways to reduce the risk. At the same time, we must identify those factors that buffer individuals from the risk factors present in their environments and then find ways to increase the protection. Risk factors and protective factors exits in our community, family, school and peer/individual. Data collected for the County wide Partnership for Youth and Safe Schools/ Healthy Students Initiative is organized around this model. As a participant in the community coalition, the Partnership has organized this plan around the model.

Some ATOD concerns remain for Wayne County. In several areas of the 2006/2007 IPRC survey, students reported higher monthly consumption rates than the state average. This being the case we need to continue focusing on prevention/education initiatives in the schools and youth organizations. A collaborative effort has taken hold in Wayne County to implement "A Comprehensive Prevention Approach" as defined by the Development Research Programs, Inc. in Seattle Washington. According to this model, "the foundation of an effective prevention program is a comprehensive, community-wide approach that addresses risk factors by enhancing protective factors based on established and field-tested research." As defined by this approach, Wayne County has worked to implement strategies identified throughout the plan.

Treatment/Intervention options in Wayne County have increased, both for adolescents as well as adults. Collaboration between agencies is paramount when the need exists to offer treatment options to the homeless, the indigent, and to every other socio-economic group represented. Individuals who do not have healthcare cannot afford for-profit treatment centers. Wayne County has programs designed for these individuals. Providing financial support to these agencies is a priority for our community.

Our law enforcement agencies take extraordinary steps to make our communities a safe place to live, work and raise a family. Participation in the Governor's Council on Impaired and Dangerous Driving enforcement, drug investigations and arrests, and diversion programs, are only a few initiatives that our law enforcement agencies participate in. Additionally, many community outreach opportunities have developed with the Sheriff’s Department Safe Driver Program and DARE as well as Richmond Police Department and Sheriff’s Department demonstrations with their “drug sniffing dogs.”

It is our obligation to work with every strategy in this plan to reduce the issues our citizens face with ATOD. This plan is a working document that allows us to distribute funding in a fair and equitable manner that best serves the citizens of Wayne County. For the next 4 years we will address the following problem statements:

1. Adults and youth in Wayne County are using cocaine.
2. Youth in Wayne County are engaging in alcohol use.
3. Adults in Wayne County are abusing alcohol.
4. Adults and youth in Wayne County are abusing prescription medication.
5. Adults and youth in Wayne County are using marijuana.

Local data supports our need to address these problems in our community. In response to the community survey 39% said that it would be fairly easy to get cocaine if they wanted it. Nearly 12% of respondents report having used cocaine presently or in the past. 38% report alcohol as the first drug ever used and 10% report marijuana.