Why you should consider an environmental scan

Coalitions are well-positioned to change the problem environments that exist within their communities. But to do so, they first must discover the high risk areas that cause alcohol and other drug problems. However, I have noticed that when conducting their community assessment coalition leaders often focus primarily on epidemiological data that provide AOD consumption rates. Such data, as important as they may be, will not give you information on the context or place of substance use in your community.

The lack of such information is one compelling reason for your coalition to conduct an environmental scan. Let’s look at alcohol problems. You’ve found data on numbers of arrests, drunk-driving rates, alcohol use among specific populations and age groups. But you want to dig deeper to get a more complete perspective of the problem in your community. So you could do a scan which includes the following questions and information:

• The number and location liquor outlets. Is there large number of liquor stores and bars in your community, on in some neighborhoods? Can you buy alcohol in markets, convenience stores, drug stores, gas stations? What time do outlets stop selling booze?
• Where is liquor consumed? In addition to bars and restaurants, what about parks, street festivals, sporting events, parking lots, abandoned buildings, etc?
• How is alcohol promoted in your community? Do you have markets with liquor ads all over the windows and walls? Do you have a lot of “Happy Hour” or other types of promotions? Do you have lots of billboards with alcohol ads in your community?
• Do outlets post signs stating that a person must be 21 to enter or purchase alcohol?

These are just a few of the items that you can scan. Note the emphasis above on WHERE specifically problems occur. Your coalition can make an impact on reducing rates of consumption by honing in on areas where problems occur. Consider what you might find out if you combine the results of your environmental scan with data from your local law enforcement agency.

To get started, I suggest you develop a team that will carry out such a scan. Here I must add that I have seen coalitions do a great job of involving their youth in this activity. Youth can help you track data, ask questions, take pictures, make creative displays of results, etc. You are probably missing the boat if you don’t involve youth in your environmental scan. Also, make sure you get people from the neighborhood(s) you are scanning. Not a good idea to send in folks who don’t look like the people who live in the neighborhood. Once you have your team, develop a methodology to document the information. Identify the questions you want answered and how you are going to collect and analyze the data. Remember there are lot more questions to be asked than the ones I stated above. For more information you can check out the CADCA Institute’s Environmental Strategies publication.

But I’d really like to hear from some coalitions about your experiences with environmental scanning. What barriers did you encounter? What lessons learned can you share with folks? If you had it to do over again, what would you do different? Thanks!

This post was written by Dr. Eduardo Hernández-Alarcón, Deputy Director for Dissemination and Coalition Relations for CADCA's National Coalition Institute. You may reach Dr. Hernandez at ehernandez@cadca.org.