Please join us in congratulating the winners of CADCA’s 2015 GOT OUTCOMES! Coalition of Excellence Awards.

This year, awards go to the Hernando County Community Anti-Drug Coalition in Spring Hill, Florida, and Healthy Communities that Care of Livingston County in Geneseo, New York. These two coalitions are being recognized for implementing a comprehensive set of data-driven strategies that contributed to population-level reductions in their county-level substance abuse prevention outcomes. 

Sponsored by CADCA’s National Coalition Institute, the awards program recognizes coalitions that both demonstrate outcomes and can effectively communicate their contribution to those outcomes through extensive documentation. The coalitions go through a rigorous two-phase application process that requires them to provide detailed information about their assessment, capacity, planning, implementation, and evaluation efforts. Since 2005, CADCA has recognized 32 coalitions to receive one of these prestigious awards.

The Coalition of the Year Award was given to the Hernando County Community Anti-Drug Coalition for their underage drinking, tobacco, and prescription drug misuse prevention work. Strong collaboration with the Hernando County Sheriff’s Office, Hernando County States Attorney and the Brooksville Police Department resulted in increasing alcohol retailer compliance checks to a quarterly schedule. In lieu of arrest for non-compliance, the coalition put in place a diversion program that refers retailers to a Responsible Vendor Training program. To date, the coalition reports zero repeat offenders. Other highlights of their work include collaborating with school resource officers to offer a “Know the Law” course to over 13,000 youth about alcohol and drug use laws and engaging over 275 active youth members across 11 schools to support successful tobacco policy advocacy initiatives. The coalition has also facilitated the distribution of almost 700 lockboxes to local families to store their medications safely and blanketed the community with 466 PSAs for their “Lock It Up” media campaign. 

“Through the commitment of our partners who operate at the highest level of professionalism and truly care about Hernando County, we have made great strides,” said Tresa Watson, Executive Director of the coalition. There was a 31 percent decrease in past 30-day alcohol use among 6^й through 12^й graders between 2010 and 2014 as well as a 41 percent decrease in reported binge drinking. Also, 36 percent fewer 6^й through 12^й graders report having smoked cigarettes in 2014 as compared to 2010 and past 30 day youth misuse of prescription drugs is steadily declining.

Healthy Communities that Care of Livingston County received the Coalition in Focus award for their underage drinking prevention efforts. One great strength of this coalition is their use of qualitative data to enhance their understanding of the local issues contributing to youth alcohol access. “What has made our coalition so effective is our long-term collaborations with key members. Our strong relationship with our schools and the nearby SUNY Geneseo College has enabled us to conduct focus groups with in the high schools with over 400 youth each year,” explained Rachel Pena, the coalition’s Project Director.

Driven by the data, the coalition worked to address youth alcohol access at college parties and local bars. They collaborated with their law enforcement partners to implement compliance checks, fake ID details, and party patrols. They also implemented a successful county-wide media campaign to educate adults about the risks and consequences associated with providing alcohol to minors and not monitoring alcohol stored in their home. Between 2010 and 2014, there was a 44 percent reduction in the number  of parents that report they know teens that are obtaining alcohol at parties hosted by parents. Compliance check failures have also gone down by 42 percent since 2010. Today, fewer youth report that alcohol is easy to get and past 30-day youth drinking has reduced by 45 percent.

The winning coalitions will receive their award onstage during the Awards Luncheon at CADCA’s 2016 National Leadership Forum on Feb. 4 at the Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center in National Harbor, Md. They will also be sharing details about their strategies and tips for coalitions during a workshop at the conference on Thursday, Feb. 4 from 10:45 a.m. to Noon called Creating Change: Coalitions in the Real World.

Learn more about the GOT OUTCOMES! Coalition of Excellence Award program.