Excelsior springs safe DFC - the excelsior springs safe (substance abuse free environments) coalition serves excelsior springs, missouri, a community of 11,640

The coalition's goals for the drug free communities grant are twofold: to establish and strengthen community collaboration in support of local youth substance use prevention and to prevent and reduce local youth substance use. Safe will increase active representation among all sectors by 30% from 2021 to 2026 , as measured through coalition meeting sign-in sheets and coalition roster. This capacity-building will be done through recruiting, training, engaging, and retaining members and through communicating with all stakeholders. By 2026, excelsior springs 6TH-12TH grade students' past 30 day use of alcohol and nicotine will decrease by at least 3 percentage points, as measured by the missouri student survey. The coalition will achieve these goals by implementing complementary environmental and individual strategies following cadca's (community anti-drug coalitions of america) 7 strategies of community change. Strategies will focus on decreasing youth access to alcohol and nicotine, increasing the perception of harm of youth alcohol and nicotine use, and decreasing adult and youth acceptance of youth alcohol and nicotine use. In addition, the coalition will work to increase youth protective factors and decrease youth risk factors to impact community culture and attitudes regarding youth nicotine and alcohol use. Safe implements the strategic prevention framework and uses evidence-based practices when choosing strategies. The coalition and its efforts are thoroughly evaluated and have a history of contributing to measurable change and healthy outcomes for youth in our community.