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The Drug Free Communities Support Program (DFC)

The Drug-Free Communities Support Program (DFC) is aimed at mobilizing community leaders to identify and respond to the drug problems unique to Atlanta and change local community environmental conditions tied to substance use. Since the passage of the DFC Act in 1997, the DFC Program has funded more than 2,000 coalitions and currently mobilizes nearly 9,000 community volunteers across the country. In partnership with Atlanta Public Schools, the Power Through Prevention Community Coalition has been awarded a Drug Free Communities grant to serve Atlanta Public School students. This project serves students from 11 to 18 years old in select middle and high schools with the Atlanta Public School System with evidenced based strategies and practices to prevent youth substance use. Additionally, the SUPER Thrive! prevention curriculum is implemented to Atlanta Public Schools students district wide through the Office of Student Discipline.

The Peer Assisted School Transition Project (PAST)

The Peer Assisted School Transition Project (PAST) is an age and stage appropriate peer helping program that seeks to build resiliency in youth. In 2017, the Council on Alcohol and Drugs developed a substance abuse prevention program centered around youth transitioning from 5th grade to 6th grade and 8th grade to 9th grade. The Peer Assisted School Transition Project (PAST) is an age and stage appropriate peer helping program that seeks to build resiliency in youth. PAST works by using trained peer leaders to assist younger students across two transitional phases in school, 5th grade to 6th grade (middle school transition) and 8th grade to 9th grade transition (high school transition). The PAST curriculum is based on evidence-based strategies and practices and guides school personnel, peer leaders and rising peers in building Substance Abuse Prevention (SAP) skills and knowledge via increasing the strength of multiple protective factors and reducing the strength of and exposure to multiple risk factors. The student participants are referred to the program by an adult leader at the host school. Students are linked to specific peer leaders based on the needs of the student and the skills of the peer leader. The peer leaders (6th and 9th grade students) are placed in helping roles with younger students (5th and 8th grade students) from feeder campuses. The PAST Rising Peer Workbooks, Peer Leader Manuals, Toolkits, and the Getting Started Implementation Guide represents the partnership between the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD) and The Council on Alcohol and Drugs. The Rising Peer Workbooks, Peer Leader Manuals, Toolkits, and the Getting Started Implementation Guide were written by The Council on Alcohol and Drugs. Oversight and final approval was granted from DBHDD. 

PAST Website

WHAT WE DO

Goals and
Strategies

Increase Community Collaboration

Through trainings, community events, and building awareness about the impact of alcohol and marijuana use on the teen brains

Reduce Youth Substance Abuse

Decrease youth (9 to 18 years old) 30-day alcohol and marijuana as measured by the Georgia Student Health Survey. Through limiting youth access to substances, decreasing social acceptability of alcohol use, educating parents, adults, and youth about the health impacts of marijuana use, and advocating and assisting with the enforcement of local ordinances through policy change and sustainability.

Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF)

Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) is a dynamic, data-driven planning process that prevention practitioners can use to understand and more effectively address the substance abuse and related mental health problems facing their communities. SPF uses the following 5 Steps:

  1. Needs Assessment
  2. Capacity Building (Training and Technical Assistance)
  3. Strategic Planning
  4. Implementation
  5. Evaluation

The SPF is also guided by two cross-cutting principles that should be integrated into each of the steps that comprise it:

  1. Cultural competence. The ability of an individual or organization to understand and interact effectively with people who have different values, lifestyles, and traditions based on their distinctive heritage and social relationships.
  2. Sustainability. The process of building an adaptive and effective system that achieves and maintains desired long-term results.

Join Us!

The Power Through Prevention Community Coalition meetings are held every third Thursday of each month at 10:00am. Held via conference call or via Zoom until further notice. Please email adaniel@livedrugfree.org to be added to email listserv.

adaniel@livedrugfree.org

We serve communities throughout the city of Atlanta.

In 2011, the Council on Alcohol and Drugs established the Atlanta DeKalb Community Prevention Alliance Workgroup (CPAW) to address the underlying causes for so many of the community’s substance use/abuse concerns. Atlanta DeKalb CPAW has evolved over the years to meet the changing needs in the community and focus population, and the Atlanta DeKalb CPAW has morphed into the Power Through Prevention Coalition.

By putting others first and developing interagency trust, the Power Through Prevention Coalition has been able to make connections, build partnerships, and serve the community to the best of its ability. The Power Through Prevention Coalition has had an impact on youth substance abuse by being a catalyst for increasing the strength of protective factors among members of the community. Specifically, the National Institute on Drug Abuse outlines protective factors against substance abuse such as “strong and positive family bonds, parental monitoring of children’s activities and peers, clear rules of conduct that are consistently enforced, success in school performance, and strong bonds with institutions such as schools or religious organizations.” Each of these protective factors have been reinforced and as documented by an external evaluator, have increased based on the work of the Power Through Prevention Coalition.