Reducing underage drinking in the greater issaquah school district community - the reducing underage drinking in the greater issaquah school district community project builds upon a decade of…

Reducing underage drinking in the greater issaquah school district community - the reducing underage drinking in the greater issaquah school district community project builds upon a decade of successful youth substance prevention and mental health promotion strategies employed by influence the choice (ITC), a non-profit serving the issaquah school district (ISD) area in western washington state. For this project ITC will increase its outreach to lgbtq+, hispanic and asian youth and families to decrease youth alcohol use and to promote youth mental health and coping strategies. ISD's 110 square mile area includes urban, suburban, and rural communities, the township of preston and five municipalities: issaquah, sammamish, renton, newcastle, and bellevue. For the 2023-2024 school year, 41% of district students self-reported as white, 36% as asian, 11% as hispanic (of any race), 10% as two or more races, and 3% as black. About 26% identify as GAY, lesbian, BI-sexual, transgender, nonbinary or questioning. Of the total ISD population, 30% were born outside the U.S. With stop act funding, influence the choice estimates 2000 or more secondary students will receive prevention education and services in individual, small group, and large group formats during the first year. ITC expects more than 1,000 impressions on student will be produced by ITC's social media substance prevention messaging campaign during the first year. Over five years, ITC expects to have served 8,000 students in individual, small group, and large group formats. ITC also expects its 4-year social campaign will reach more than 5,000 impressions on community members. Influence the choice will achieve its goal of reducing youth alcohol use by: *instituting youth clubs at the high schools focused on prevention of youth use of alcohol and other drugs; *providing prevention education and build substance refusal skills among 6TH to 12 grade students; *providing prevention education through health classes, and using 3RD millennium classroom to provide correct information about the risk of alcohol use by youth; *creating social media campaigns sharing ideas for refusal skills and anxiety reduction; *providing alcohol-free events for 6TH to 12TH grade students; and *working with municipalities to enact and enforce local social hosting ordinances. Proactive focus will be provided to ensure ITC programming reaches students and community members within the lgbtq+, asian, and hispanic communities. During the project period, ITC will assess disproportional trends and gaps in alcohol use within the focus populations and integrate evidence-based strategies for the focus populations in the ITC strategic action plan. Influence the choice will achieve its goal of increasing community collaboration by: *building relationships with city council members in all five municipality through presentations to the councils and individual meetings with council members; *conducting annual youth listening sessions; *developing and strengthening relationships with community-based organizations that serve the focus populations; *host town halls and participate in community resource fairs; *ensure representation of focus communities on the ITC board of directors. During the project period, ITC will assess risk and protective factors and integrate evidence-based strategies, including specific strategies for the focus populations in the ITC strategic action plan. ITC will be utilizing the strategic prevention framework to assess, build capacity, strategically plan updates to activities, implement the plan using evidence-based programming and evaluate the effectiveness of programming. Attention will be given to our focus populations and staff will build skills to provide culturally competent programming in order to close disparity gaps.