Delaware User S Guide

Delaware User’s Guide

Stage 1:

Needs Assessment

Through the

Strategic Prevention Framework

Table of Contents

Community Needs Assessment Workbook Contributors 4

Local Data Sources 5

Introduction 6

Problems 10

Consequences

Consumption

Causal Areas

Social Availability

Promotion

Community Norms

Individual Factors

Prioritization

Resource Assessment

Final Question

References & Appendices

Appendices

Contacts for Questions or Help

Steven S. MartinCecilia Willis

Senior Scientist and Associate DirectorProject Director, SPF-SIG

Center for Drug and Alcohol StudiesDivision of Substance Abuse & Mental Health

ph: (302) 831-6107 fax: (302) 831-3307ph: (302)

Roberta GealtErica Melman

Associate ScientistProject Manager, SPF-SIG

Center for Drug and Alcohol StudiesDivision of Substance Abuse & Mental Health

ph: (302) 831-3204 fax: (302) 831-3114ph: (302) 255-9428

Workbook is Available Online

Community Needs Assessment Workbook Contributors

List the names of people in your community, the organizations they represent, and the contributions they made to completing this workbook in Table 1 below.

Table 1. Workbook Contributors

Name / Organization / Contribution

Data Sources

In Table 2 below list all the state and local data sources used in this workbook as well as a description of the data, and where it came from.

Table 2. Local Data Sources

Data Source / Data Description / Data Location / Contact Information

Introduction

Delaware was awarded a Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant (SPF-SIG) grant in July of 2009. Delaware’s statewide SPF-SIG priority is to reduce alcohol misuse and abuse of Delaware residents 12-25 years of age. Indicators of change may include, but are not limited to: a decrease of underage and binge drinking (consumption), alcohol related traffic crashes, and alcohol-related arrests (consequences). Communities that want to focus on an additional substance abuse priority must provide relevant data to support its approval).

The purpose of the project is support the development of prevention policy, practice and programming in Delaware communities throughthe five components of the SPF planning model at both state and community levels. The following diagram details this process (Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, 2005).

Figure 1. Five Steps of the Strategic Prevention Framework Process

The SPF is a five step planning process. The Five Steps of the Framework are:

1. Assessment: Profile population needs, resources, and readiness to address needs and gaps in service delivery;

2. Capacity Building: Mobilize and/or build capacity to address needs;

3. Planning: Develop a comprehensive Strategic Plan;

4. Implementation: Implement evidence-based prevention programs, policies, and/or practices;

5. Evaluation: Monitor and evaluate programs, policies, and practices.

This workbook addresses step 1. Assessment.

Define your community:

In order to proceed through the five steps of the SPF to reduce alcohol misuse and abuse among 12-25 year olds in your community, you must first define your community. Some projects may target the entire state, while others may focus on a specific county or Sub-state Planning Area (there are four—Wilmington, New Castle County outside of Wilmington, Kent County and Sussex County). A community may also consist of a school district or a particular school’s feeder area, or it may consist of a town, or a zip code, a census tract, or a neighborhood.

However you define your community, you will need to look for information that is as specific as possible to just your community. Delaware’s goalsare to reduce alcohol misuse and abuse among 12-25 year olds (consumption), and some of its consequences , and to increase state and community infrastructure to sustain those reductions. Your goals will probably be similar, so you will need to be able to measure the level of these behaviors both now and again after you have done something to try to change them. The consumption measures that will be most helpful in describing these behaviors in your community are:

Ever used alcohol
Used alcohol in the past 30 days
Binge drank

Consequence measures may differ for different communities, but can include data on arrests, school data, or other information available at the level of your community. Infrastructure measures may include such things as alcohol-related policies or laws, how many sectors of the community are involved in your project, or what resources are available to the community.

Some of these measures can be found for different age groups, genders, race/ethnicities and different geographic areas at Find the measure there that comes closest to describing just your community. Information about specific schools and school districts is not available on the website, but can be requested from the individual school or district.

Outcome-Based Prevention

The foundation of the SPF process is the outcome-based prevention model (Lowther & Birckmayer, 2006).

Figure 2. PF Needs Assessment Logic Model

In this model a community gathers its substance-related consumption and consequence data, researches the causal areas that may impact these problems, and chooses evidence-based policies, practices, and programs(strategies) to address the identified causal areas.

Purpose

The purpose of this workbook is to help SPF-SIG funded communities go through the first step of the outcome-based prevention model, which is to complete a comprehensive needs assessment. This means that grantees, and the community partnerships, must accurately assess their problems using data, and they must do research to understand what may influence these problems. This workbook is provided to help in that process.

Keep in mind that Delaware has already identified the targeted need for this project—the misuse and abuse of alcohol among 12-25 year olds.

1. The primary target for the SPF-SIG is underage drinking and abusive drinking in young adults to age 25. Underage drinking refers to any use of alcohol by anyone under the age of 21.
2. The secondary target for the SPF-SIGare the significant consequences of the misuse of alcohol in Delaware: alcohol-related crime, alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes, and alcohol dependence and abuse, requiring intervention.

Workbook Organization

The tasks that follow are based on the outcome-based prevention model. There are four major sections (problems, causes, prioritization, and resource assessment). Within each there are data to collect and questions to answer.

Each grantee can complete the tasks that follow to detail the problems and influences surrounding the misuse and abuse of alcohol in their community. This will lead to focused mobilization and capacity building, as wellas aid in the prioritization of evidence-based strategies within the community’s strategic plan.

The work that follows involves gathering data to describe both the problem(s) and the potential cause(s) that contribute to the problems in your community. This is achieved by answering a series of questions. Some of the data you gather will exist in various data sources we will refer you to, but you may also want to do some original research. Data gathering includes:

Existing survey results, including school-based surveys and college student surveys
Original data collection
Interviews with key partners and stakeholders
A town hall meeting with interested community members and leaders

Collection of Existing Survey Results

Much of the data that will be used in this workbook will already have been publicly reported. When possible, you will be referred to a website or other public data source to find your community’s information. The instructions in each section will direct you and provide guidance on how to interpret the results from existing data sources.

In addition to the existing data sources that are specifically outlined in this workbook, local surveys or other local data are encouraged to be used as sources of auxiliary information to aid in the decision making process.

Interviews with Key Partners and Stakeholders

Interviewing key partners and stakeholders in your community will help provide a better picture of their concerns within your community regarding the misuse of alcohol. One particular set of stakeholders that you may want to interview are the law enforcement officials in your community. A sample protocol for these law enforcement interviews is given in this workbook’s Appendix B, and a brief description of the information that is to be gathered in the law enforcement interviews is provided in the law enforcement section. Interviews with other stakeholders will provide local information in other areas of this workbook.

Town Hall Meeting

As part of the data collection, you may want toconduct a town hall meeting to gather community views regarding what factors influence the misuse of alcohol in your community. In particular, you will need to find out how the community thinks social availability, community norms, and individual factors impact the misuse of alcohol in your community. A description on how to conduct the town hall meeting, and the types of information that may be gathered from the town hall meeting is provided in Appendix C.

Collection of Original Data

In several areas of this workbook you will be shown how to gather information using specificmethods. This data collection will include such things as counting the number of billboards which advertise alcohol, or counting the number of events where alcohol companies or distributors are sponsors, or the number of alcohol outlets—bars and package stores—in your community. The point of this data collection is to gather information directly from your community by observation or library research. The original data that you collect will be submitted to CDAS to document your community’s needs assessment.

A final copy of the Community Needs Assessment Workbook should be submitted electronically to your Evaluation Team contact.

SPF-SIG Evaluation

University of Delaware

Center for Drug and Alcohol Studies

257 East Main Street

Newark, DE 19716

Problems

Task One: Explore Alcohol Consequences and Consumption Data in your Community in Order to Identify What Problems are of Greatest Concern.

Consequences

This first section looks at alcohol-related consequence data and will help you identify which alcohol-related consequencesare of greatest concern in your community. Alcohol-related consequences are defined as the social, economic, and health problems associated with the use of alcohol, such as crime and car crashes. It is recognized that not all communities will experience exactly the same problems, and to help identify individual community problems, you will conduct a needs assessment in relation to alcohol misuse and its consequences.

Alcohol-Related Crime

One of the major consequences of drinking alcohol is crime.Your task will be to obtain information on arrest rates in your community by going to the following website: Delaware crime reports to not specifically identify alcohol-related crime, with the exception of DUI’s. Complete the table or tables below that are relevant to your project. Some tables on drug use are included for communities that are focusing on drug use as well as alcohol use.

For Delaware’s rate per 100,000 population (census data is available in Appendix A, Table 1), the calculation of a DUI rate would look like this:

Adult DUI rate =

Some tables on drug use are included in this section for those communities who are also targeting drug use. If your community is not, you do not need to complete these tables.

Table 1. Driving under the Influence of Alcohol

Year / Number of LocalArrests / Local
Population / Rate per 100,000 Population / Number of Delaware Arrests / DelawareRate per 100,000Population / Rate Comparison
2007
2008
2009
2010

Table 2. Driving under the Influence of Alcohol and Drugs

Year / Number of Local
Arrests / Local
Population / Rate per 100,000 Population / Number of Delaware Arrests / Delaware Rate per 100,000 Population / Rate Comparison
2007
2008
2009
2010

Table 3. Driving under the Influence of Drugs

Year / Number of Local
Arrests / Local
Population / Rate per 100,000 Population / Number of Delaware Arrests / Delaware Rate per 100,000 Population / Rate Comparison
2007
2008
2009
2010

Other types of crime are associated with alcohol, such as underage consumption and violent crime.

Table 4. Underage Consumption of Alcohol

Year / Number of Local
Arrests / Local
Population / Rate per 100,000 Population / Number of Delaware Arrests / Delaware Rate per 100,000 Population / Rate Comparison
2007
2008
2009
2010

Table 5. Violent Crime

Year / Number of County Arrests / CountyPopulation / Rate per 100,000 Population / Number of DelawareArrests / Rate per 100,000 Population / Rate Comparison
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009

Table 6. Drug-Related Crime

You may be able to get more recent data or more specific alcohol-related crime data by working with your local police departments—whichever police departments are responsible for your community. Be sure you check with the State Police, County Police, municipal police and any special forces such as University Police to see what information they collect and can share.

Key Law Enforcement Interviews

As part of this needs assessment you may conduct interviews of key law enforcement officers. You are encouraged to do at least one interview with the Chief of Police and one with the County Sheriff, but consider what interviews would be the most appropriate and informative for your community. You may also want to consider interviews with emergency room staff, school officials, or treatment facility administrators about their interactions with the justice system. A sample protocol for the law enforcement interviews and ideas on how to gather and analyze qualitative data from these interviews can be found in Appendix B.

Other Local Data

Feel free to consider and analyze other local data that will help identify and detail problems around the consequences of alcohol-related crime. For example, you may have information from local surveys, you may know about trouble spots, or specific alcohol-related strategies that the police are implementing. You may have local data on Underage Possession arrests and/or citations. If you have other local data describe the results here.

Question 1.
Based on the information in this workbook, at and other local data, how does alcohol-related crime in your community compare to alcohol-related crime across the state? Is your problem bigger, smaller or about the same? Discuss the differences. Do you think the arrest data accurately reflect the related problems in your community, why or why not?

To provide another set of estimates for your county, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) data and other school data may often be obtained at the state level and at the county level at and information on the Delaware School Survey may also be obtained from the website or from your local schools and/or school districts. If you can obtain this information you will want to include this in some Tables.

Under the percentage comparison column in Tables 7 and 8 use a “+” if your county percentage is higher than the Delaware percentage, use “–” if your county percentage is lower than the Delaware percentage, and use “=” if the percentages are about the same.

Table 7. Percentage of Students That Said They Rode in a Car or Other Vehicle Driven by Someone Who Had Been Drinking Alcohol One or More Times during the past 30 Days (2009 YRBS)

Grade / County / Delaware / Percentage Comparison
9th
10th
11th
12th
9th-12th

Table 8. Percentage of Students That Said They Drove a Car or Other Vehicle When They Had Been Drinking Alcohol One or More Times during the past 30 Days (2009 YRBS)

Grade / County / Delaware / Percentage Comparison
9th
10th
11th
12th
9th-12th
Question 2.
Based on Tables7 and 8, how does student drinking and driving in your community compare to student drinking and driving across the state? Is your problem bigger, smaller, or about the same? Discuss the differences.

Alcohol-Related Car Crashes

Another targeted consequence of the misuse of alcohol for Delaware’s SPF-SIG project is car crashes related to alcohol use. For your community assessment, you will need to obtain information on the percentage of alcohol-related motor vehicle fatalities in your community from the Community Level Epidemiological Report available at

Table 9. Alcohol-Related Fatalities

Year / Number of CountyFatalities / CountyPopulation / Rate per 100,000 Population / Number of Delaware Fatalities / Rate per 100,000 Population / Rate Comparison
2002
2003
2004
2005
2002-2005

Table 10. Alcohol-Related Fatal Crashes

Year / Number of County Fatal Crashes / CountyPopulation / Rate per 100,000 Population / Number of Delaware Fatal Crashes / Rate per 100,000 Population / Rate Comparison
2002
2003
2004
2005
2002-2005

Other Local Data

Feel free to consider and analyze other local data that will help identify and detail problems around the consequences of alcohol and motor vehicles. For example, you may have information from local surveys, or you may know about certain trouble spots. If you have other local data describe the results here.

Question 3.
Based on Tables 9 and 10, and your local level data, how do alcohol-related car crashes in your community compare to alcohol-related car crashes across the state? Is your problem bigger, smaller or about the same?Discuss the differences.

School Data-Suspensions/Expulsions

Other possible consequences of the misuse of alcohol for Delaware’s SPF-SIG project include school suspensions and expulsions, and graduation rates.

Table 11. School Alcohol-Related Suspensions/Expulsions See Appendix 1, Table 6

Table 12. School Drug-Related Suspensions/Expulsions See Appendix 1, Table 6

Level / Local Suspension/ Expulsions / Local School Population / Rate per 1,000 Students / Number of DelawareSusp/Exp / Rate per 1,000 Students / Rate Comparison
High School
Elementary
Middle Sch.
Charter Sch.
Question 4.
Based on Tables 11 and 12, and your local level data, how do suspensions/expulsions in your community compare to suspensions/expulsions across the state? Is your problem bigger, smaller or about the same? Discuss the differences.

Final Consequences Question