Across the nation, local organizations are doing innovative work to reduce substance abuse in their communities. Partnering with schools, courts, mental health centers, religious congregations, and law enforcement, they are often operating with limited staff and on a shoestring budget. And they may be doing excellent work.
But we often don’t know for certain, because many programs don’t have the resources to evaluate their own effectiveness. And, equally important, they may not document their successes so they can be shared and replicated across the country.
EDC is working with the federal government to ensure that this valuable information is not lost.
To help innovative local programs grow from and share what they’ve learned, the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) developed the Service to Science Initiative. It provides individualized technical assistance for prevention programs to help them strengthen evaluation designs, adopt more rigorous research methodologies, identify desired outcomes, and develop appropriate instruments, among other things.
Each year, approximately 50 programs take part in Service to Science, which is administered by the Center for the Application of Prevention Technologies (CAPT) operated by EDC. Since 2005, more than 400 innovative prevention programs representing all 50 U.S. states, 16 tribes and federally recognized tribal organizations, and five Pacific jurisdictions have participated.
One program is Prevention Programming for Latino Youth (PPLY), a bilingual afterschool program in northern Georgia for middle school students and their parents. Students attend PPLY—popularly known as “Club Xtreme”—six to eight hours a week and receive academic tutoring; participate in recreational, art, and service activities; and learn about the consequences of alcohol and drug use. Parents are invited to monthly meetings, where they view student presentations and interact with program facilitators.
Last year, PPLY’s staff designed a new component for the program—In “Harmonia” with My Heritage—that uses an interactive format to teach Hispanic history and culture. Research shows that strengthening youths’ connections to their cultural legacy reduces risks of substance abuse. Program Director Greg Raduka, along with the Burruss Institute for Public Service and Research at Kennesaw State University, reached out to Service to Science for support in measuring the impact of this cultural component.
Previous evaluations had shown that PPLY improved students’ grades and school attendance, decreased school-related discipline problems, and decreased use of drugs and alcohol. But these evaluations did not specifically look at the cultural experience of the participants. Service to Science evaluator Jon Miles worked with Raduka and his staff to create a new survey—first administered this past school year—that measures such things as students’ attachment to and awareness of their Latino culture. He also helped them develop a secondary survey that collects information about alcohol and drug use throughout the year.
“Jon helped us think through what we really wanted to measure and how we wanted to measure it,” Raduka says. “He helped us bring the evaluation to a whole new level.”
Additional funding from SAMHSA is enabling PPLY to implement its new evaluation system. After the data are analyzed, Raduka hopes to submit the program for review to SAMHSA’s online National Registry for Evidence-based Programs and Practices (NREPP). If accepted, PPLY will be available for prevention workers in other communities to use with Latino youth.
Originally published on October 26, 2011