Sustaining the Momentum of Statewide Initiatives

Statewide initiative leaders need to sustain efforts at two levels: keeping campus and community coalitions moving forward and maintaining state-level work that supports local efforts. We asked the leaders of two of the longer-standing initiatives, Maureen Earley from the Virginia Department of Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) and Patricia Harmon and Connie Block from Ohio Parents for Drug Free Youth, to offer their suggestions for other statewide initiative leaders.

Question: Working toward environmental change is a significant shift in how many colleges and universities have thought about AOD prevention. Even once campuses decide to adopt an environmental management framework, they often emphasize campus-based environmental strategies -- offering alcohol-free options, changing campus policies, and conducting social norms marketing campaigns -- rather than strategies designed to limit alcohol availability in the community, enforce community laws, and restrict high-risk marketing and promotion of alcohol. What does the statewide initiative provide to campus leaders to encourage and sustain that shift to an environmental approach?

Maureen Earley, Virginia (ME): We offer grants that are very specific to environmental strategies. The Operation Undergrad grants specifically state that they need to look at their current policies and how they enforce those policies and look at the changes they need to make. In addition, law enforcement and the AOD coordinator need to work together on the grant, again addressing environmental strategies only. Another new grant we just offered is our College Partnerships. To push the campuses away from a campus-based strategy, this was to look at a problem area outside the campus, such as fraternity row, an apartment complex, etc., again, using only environmental strategies to do the project.

Through these grants, the colleges receive training in the areas they are working on as well as technical assistance throughout the year in the various areas of environmental prevention.

Our training piece has grown a lot in the past few years. The trainings that we offer are on environmental strategies. In addition, these trainings are offered to college as well as community, which gives the colleges an opportunity to network with the community AOD coordinators.

Patricia Harmon and Connie Block, Ohio (PH/CB): Yes, training and technical assistance are key factors in the initial stages of development in order to grasp the concepts of environmental change, although those concepts are better known now than they were seven years ago when we began. We certainly needed lots of Center [Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention] help to understand the concepts initially. Because of frequent turnover in campus personnel involved with prevention, it is necessary to keep presenting and reviewing the basic environmental management concepts.

We have continuously kept the training components of the meetings with campus project directors focused on environmental change. At this point in our development, it is best to utilize the expertise of the member colleges. Usually one campus is particularly effective in an area and will present to the others, followed by good discussion and input from other campus representatives.

Everything disseminated by Ohio Parents for Drug Free Youth about the Initiative incorporates the importance of coalition building and implementation of environmental strategies: Activity Resource File, Web site, listserve, Annual Report of the Initiative, press releases, etc.

Question: Environmental strategies require coordination with a myriad of community members -- law enforcement, bar owners, town or city officials, and prevention groups, to name a few. What local stakeholders do you think are essential to sustaining local efforts? How do you support local efforts to recruit and sustain involvement of key stakeholders?

ME: First of all, there needs to be a person who has as part of their job description organizing and facilitating the coalition. This gives the coalition a leader to continue to organize the group and who has a vested interest. Also, working with many different coalitions, with many different leaders, we have found things that we think work well. The best leaders are not overly controlling and have established credibility with the various coalition members – especially law enforcement. If it is a new coalition, find a person that is an effective facilitator, will keep the group moving, and works well with enforcement as well as the regular citizen and has a good working knowledge of environmental strategies. To change policies, it is good to get a person involved from the town council. Even if the initial strategies don’t include this component, get [local government officials] involved from the start.

In addition, we continue to encourage partnerships as much as a true coalition. People don’t necessarily need to be at the table to help create change. They could be a valuable person by having a few quick phone conversations!

PH/CB: All efforts of the Initiative have centered on the importance of coalition building in order to implement environmental management strategies. Statewide there are two levels of focus: college presidents and high level administrators, the campus project directors and other campus-community coalition members. The case studies of 37 campuses revealed the importance of presidential/administrative support for prevention efforts. Because each campus community is unique, technical assistance involves helping to identify potential coalition members and ways to approach/involve them. Often it seems necessary to get a group effort in place on campus before it is possible to expand out into the community.

Question: What are some of the barriers you’ve seen campus and community coalitions come up against? What are some of the ways you’ve helped them to overcome those obstacles?

ME: Administrators not thoroughly understanding environmental prevention strategies. Also, it's important to show local law enforcement how working on alcohol issues would reduce many of their other community problems, i.e., violence, destruction of property, etc.

Another problem is the time it takes to collaborate. It is difficult for people to find time to network and collaborate.

Also, the group needs to come up with one project and work on that project together to implement and evaluate. If the group sees a success, then they will get motivated to move ahead and do more. Also, it is important for the leader of the group to make sure he or she understands the strengths and weaknesses of the individual members and uses those to the advantage of the group. If someone is a great writer, let them construct the press releases; someone else may have lots of time to drop off flyers door to door. So it is important for the coalition leader to find people’s strengths and use them quickly and efficiently.

PH/CB:

• Personnel turnover is a critical barrier. On many campuses, particularly smaller ones, prevention is an added-on responsibility to an entry-level staff person’s job description. Such staff frequently leave the campus when they advance to a higher-level position.
  
  Initiative assistance: invite teams to attend retreats and trainings; links with other Ohio Parents for Drug Free Youth initiatives (community coalitions, volunteers in prevention); technical assistance via site visits, phone, e-mail.
• Lack of resources on campuses: budget, time, facilities, expertise.
  
  Initiative assistance: pass on funding notices and ideas, promote pooling and/or reallocation of existing resources, stress coalition as opportunity to divide responsibility for carrying out prevention activities.
• Presidential/high level administrative support often not present.
  
  Initiative assistance: mailings and outreach to all presidents on at least yearly basis about the Initiative. Having a college president chair the Initiative and serve as a spokesperson for it.
• Lack of sense of purpose of coalition/no defined planning process /deviation from environmental management philosophy.
  
  Initiative assistance: strongly urge completion of the CARA (College Alcohol Risk Assessment) as a key guide to identifying current issues and to stimulating discussion of best ways to address them.
• Absence of any planned evaluation measures.
  
  Initiative assistance: trainings on evaluation, emphasis on need for it and usefulness of data.

Question: How about the coalitions that have been going strong for many years? What do the experienced coalitions need that is different from what beginning or even intermediate coalitions need?

ME: Personally, they need to stay current on the new research. They need to get out of the mold of “this is how we always did it.” And they probably need to do a better job at evaluation. Prevention has come a long way, and showing outcome is important. So for coalitions that have been around a long time, can they show change and if not, why not? I would say long standing coalitions have lots of activities but not anything that creates behavior change. They may have a lot of feel-good activities!! So they should welcome new input and new energy to the coalition.

PH/CB: The strong coalitions tend to have the strong (and often long term) project directors. As the coalitions continue to develop, often the original strong directors are not as directly involved. We are capitalizing on the passion and experience of some of the strongest coalitions by having those project directors serve as a Leadership Team for the Initiative.

Mature statewide coalitions reach a peak in momentum when it is felt that a lot has been accomplished. At that point the challenge is to keep the statewide coalition of the Initiative energized and vital. Ohio has included representatives of strong campus coalitions on its Leadership Team, will send several to the Statewide Initiatives Leadership Institute, involves them as representatives of model coalitions in presentations about the Initiative and acknowledges them in printed materials.

Mature campus/community coalitions need support in “staying the course” of environmental management strategies when Core Alcohol and Other Drug Survey data do not drop and arrests may even be up due to better enforcement. The coalitions often feel pressure to prove that what they are doing is effective/right. As coalitions mature, they often increase in size and need assistance in maintaining the environmental management focus in the face of new members with other ideas or less understanding of the concept of cultural change.

Question: What about at the state level? What has been key to sustaining your efforts there?

ME: Even though we have been around for a long time, we revisit our mission statement each year to make sure we are accomplishing what we set out to accomplish. In addition, new members are important. We are struggling with this issue right now. We don’t want the group too big so that we can’t get things done, but yet we need to revitalize.

I think ABC continuing to support the efforts of Virginia College Alcohol Leadership Council has been important. There is a small budget to keep things moving and commitment by the [ABC] Education staff to keep things rolling.

In addition, because the OJJDP [Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention] block grant comes through ABC, we can make sure that campuses have access to that funding, by developing grant opportunities, offering training that is needed for the college level professionals, and developing materials related to state level issues.

PH/CB: Having a staff person dedicated to this effort is key, whether the person is full-time or part-time. Just as top-level administrative commitment is important on individual college campuses, the same is true of the implementing organization of the statewide initiative. We are currently staffed with a part-time person but because we work as team with everyone involved in some way with the other projects and initiatives of the agency, that part-time person does not stand alone. We have to convince our single state agency, which is our funder, that our efforts are making a difference. It is very advantageous to us that we have a true commitment from them for our work and the importance of these efforts.

Being seen as a statewide resource by other agencies and organizations helps to sustain the Initiative. For example, the Initiative has interfaced with the Ohio Office of Criminal Justice services (evaluation), Ohio Department of Commerce (retail licensing and control), Ohio Department of Public Safety (enforcement), as well as with Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services, the primary funding department. The Initiative has been part of the CAMPUS (Collaborating on Alcohol Misbehavior and Problems in University Settings) Initiative of the Ohio Association of Chiefs of Police that has been funded by Public Safety for the past four years. Colleges have organized and hosted regional CAMPUS conferences that have fostered a significantly increased number of combined campus/community enforcement efforts.

Another key has been the acknowledgement of the Initiative by the presidents of the member colleges and universities. In December 2002, each president signed or re-signed a statement of commitment to address high risk drinking by forming coalitions and implementing environmental management strategies.

The Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention has been a significant factor in the sustaining of statewide efforts in Ohio. All college representatives are urged to sign up for the Center's electronic mailing list [HEC/News], the Ohio Parents for Drug Free Youth staff read HEC/News and Web site materials, attend national meetings and trainings and rely on the Center staff for technical assistance and guidance. A grant from the U.S. Department of Education to assess coalition development and campus alcohol policies as well as to foster parental and student participation also boosted sustainability of the statewide Initiative.

Question: How do you view the role of state policy change in sustaining your efforts?

ME: Hmm, as a state agency we are stuck. We must be very careful on what we do or say. We are hoping to help communities more with this issue on how do you actually create policy changes.

PH/CB: We have always grappled with state policy changes and not been very active in this area. We have benefited from another project that our agency is involved in which is very focused on policy change and advocacy. From that project, we have gained a lot of knowledge and courage in policy change at both the state and federal level. I think we needed some very specific training and support in this area.

Question: Is there any other advice you have for other leaders, especially in a time when most states are experiencing fiscal crises?

ME: Use the resources that are right within your state. A drive-in one-day training can cost absolutely nothing. Find the in-state expert who won’t charge for their services, send out notices by email, and have lunch on their own, and have a college host the training for a free facility! So the only cost is for people to drive there, which most would use their own vehicle. Everyone thinks money is so important, but for the most part, you don’t need a lot to do things.

PH/CB: It is just a fact of life in our state; I think you just do the best you can. This is true with every grant that we have—we have been flat funded for several years. There is not always a lot of cost to creative projects. We started with virtually no money and while we never could have sustained with zero funding, it does make one focus on the resources of the members of a coalition (not cash but in-kind resources, expertise etc).

At the statewide level, the Initiative definitely relies more on local resources now. For example, a college hosted the annual Fall Retreat in 2002 and all presenters were from member colleges. The Initiative recommends that campuses look at reallocation of funds and combining small amounts from different “pots” to accomplish coalition activities rather than waiting for outside money.

Collaboration can stretch a little bit of money a long way. The Ohio College Initiative to Reduce High Risk Drinking truly is a collaborative effort. Virtually everyone involved with it, regardless of in what capacity, is willing to share – time, ideas, social norm materials, evaluation results, etc. – freely and regularly. This is what makes things happen!