Swicacc supports the dubois county coalition for adolescent resilience and empowerment strategies as IT empowers youth to be alcohol, marijuana and drug free. - dubois county youth in grades 6-12…

Swicacc supports the dubois county coalition for adolescent resilience and empowerment strategies as IT empowers youth to be alcohol, marijuana and drug free. - dubois county youth in grades 6-12 use alcohol and marijuana. 2021 indiana youth survey results indicated that when asked if they had consumed alcohol within the past 30-days, the following percentages of students responded in the affirmative: 3.5% of 6TH-grade students, 4.5% of 7TH-grade students, 11.8% of 8TH-grade students, 11.5% of 9TH-grade students, 13.8% of 10TH-grade students, 13.4 of 11TH-grade students, and 22.3% of 12TH-grade students. Dubois county juvenile court data indicates that during the covid-19 pandemic, there was a substantial rise in juvenile cases that involved youth alcohol or drug use with 17 cases filed in 2019, 23 cases in 2020, and 40 filed in 2021. Dubois county has specifically seen a sharp increase in the number of filed juvenile court cases where marijuana is the presenting substance. In 2017, the number of filed cases for marijuana possession was 4. During the covid-19 pandemic in 2020, that number increased to 9, and in 2021 that nearly doubled at 16 filed cases. Indiana youth survey data indicates that dubois county youth report past 30-day marijuana usage as grade 6: .2%, grade 7: 1.5%, grade 8: 2.1%, grade 9: 4.2%, grade 10: 4.1%, grade 11:3.4%, and grade 12: 7.4%. We know that the earlier youth begin using alcohol and other drugs, the more likely they are to experience addiction in adulthood. IT is our mission to empower youth in dubois county to be alcohol and drug-free. Through assessment, we have determined that the root causes of youth alcohol use in dubois county are alcohol availability and favorable parental attitudes toward use. More specifically, youth in dubois county are accessing alcohol at parties, people over 21 are providing alcohol to minors, parents are allowing youth parties where alcohol is present, and that alcohol is at the center of many family-oriented events within our community. The root causes of marijuana use in dubois county are favorable youth and parent attitudes, low perception of risk, and ease of access. While vaping is a method of drug delivery and not a substance itself, cares specifically targets this method of delivery for marijuana and nicotine. We have found through assessment that IT is the primary way in which marijuana is used by youth in dubois county and that one root cause is a lack of parental awareness regarding vaping devices. Dubois county cares utilizes the strategic prevention framework to assess the community and develop a 12-month action plan that includes the seven strategies of community-level change. We implement prevention activities to not only reduce the number of youth who are currently using alcohol and marijuana but to prevent others from drug use initiation. Through the activities of the action plan, we aim to reduce the aggregate total percentage of youth reporting past 30-day alcohol use from 11.5% in 2021 to 10% or less in 2027, to reduce the aggregate total percentage of youth reporting past 30-day electronic cigarette use by the aggregate total of 21.42% in 2019 to 15% or less in 2027 and to reduce the number of dubois county juvenile court cases with marijuana as a presenting substance from 16 in 2021 to less than 5 in 2027. We utilize campaigns such as "talk. They hear you," "not in my house," "hidden in plain sight" and "talk IT up, lock IT up" to achieve the goals of the action plan. Our priority is to ensure that our efforts are culturally competent, data-driven, evidence-based, and focused on population-level change.