Helping Empower Local People Against Drugs

A Shepherd's Hand Resource Center, Inc. (ASHRC) serves as the not-for-profit community faith-based organization for the HELP AD coalition in rural Gadsden County.

HELP AD: Gadsden County Substance Abuse Coalition (HELP AD) is based on the 12-wheel community coalition model as defined by SAMSHA and CADCA. All sectors of the Gadsden County community are represented and included. The Coalition's goals are to increase the awareness of the affects of alcohol, drugs, tobacco and other drugs, and to strengthen collaboration among community substance abuse coalitions & faith-based organizations in an effort to prevent/reduce substance abuse. HELP AD is focused on changing the full environment by identifying and implementing strategies that will affect community attitudes, perceptions, norms, and beliefs around alcohol and other drugs in Gadsden County, Florida.

The coalition is designed to strengthen collaboration among community members and organizations through long term commitment leading to reduction in youth substance abuse. The partnership is an outgrowth of identified health services and needs, i.e., food distribution, job seeking, and identified health needs. Members of our coalition are working together toward a common goal of building a safe, healthy, and drug-free community, by bringing a community focus on changing the full environment by identifying and implementing strategies that will affect community attitudes, perceptions, norms, and beliefs around alcohol and other drugs. The partnership has received funding from: Florida Department of Labor, Florida Governors Office or from the Florida State University Prevention Center. ASSESSMENTIn determining our community's need for substance abuse prevention, our coalition, H.E.L.P. A.D.: Gadsden County Substance Abuse Coalition, gathered statistics from our local health agencies, School Board, and law enforcement. (Helping Empower Local People Against Drugs) Though staggering, the statistics solidified the necessity of our coalition's programming and engaged our coalition's commitment to the Gadsden County community. The gathered information speaks to our community demographic as well as our areas of need:

• Gadsden is the only majority-black county in Florida and one of the poorest, with high unemployment and illiteracy rates and, in 2000.
• 64% of the population is a minority
• 26.1% Single-Parent Families, almost twice the state rate
• 82% of the student population on free & reduce lunch
• 888.3% rate of domestic Violence in Gadsden County, state rate 759.4 (2001)
• Gadsden Infant Mortality rate per 1,000 births 17 (2000)

Reference: Gadsden School Readiness Coalition (Data Indicators & Survey Results

HELP AD is committed to the reduction of substance abuse, underage alcohol drinking, and wellness of the Gadsden county community. To this end we have successfully partnered with local churches, and have employed Pastors or key role members of the church, youths, parents, and adults programming so that all residents are informed and empowered to reduce illegal drug use in our community.Community demographicGadsden County is a rural, sparsely populated, mostly agricultural county located in the North Florida Panhandle. Gadsden was ranked 31st of Florida's 67 counties in regards to 1999 average wage per job at $21,826.00, less than the state average of $27,781.00 in per capita personal income. The number of uninsured persons residing in Gadsden County is 6,797 (ACHA, 1999), an uninsured population of 16.3%. Medicaid as the primary subsidized insurance program is dis-enrolling many residents as a consequence of welfare reform. According to 2001 data, approximately 27.9 percent of county residents have incomes below poverty level. Approximately 28.2 percent of county residents are at 100% of the poverty level and approximately 53.6 percent of county residents are at 200% of the poverty level (Florida DOH, 2001).

CAPACITY

HELP AD, founded in 2001, is led by Pastor Stanley B. Sims, Sr. It was Pastor Sims' vision that HELP AD utilize faith-based principles to reach individuals throughout the community who did not have access to other methods of substance abuse education. Rural Gadsden County is home to many churches. Therefore, using these churches to spread messages of substance abuse prevention is an illustration of HELP AD pooling its resources for a greater cause - community substance abuse, and free healthcare screenings.

ELP AD has grown from nine members to approximately 68 current members when the three substance abuse coalitions in Gadsden County merged together, keeping Pastor Sims as Program Director, and changing its name to H.E.L.P. A.D: Gadsden County Substance Abuse Coalition. The coalition is comprised of organizations within all 12-community sectors recommended by SAMHSA. Members hail from government, state universities, hospitals, youth organizations, parents, media, community health agencies, etc.

PLANNING

Based on the information gathered from our community resources, HELP AD decided to attack the problem of substance abuse & underage alcohol drinking on two levels, youth and adults. It was evident from our community statistics that substance abuse education and awareness were absolutely pertinent to the healthcare condition of the Gadsden County community. At the simplest level, community citizens were ill informed. They did not posses the knowledge to make educated decisions regarding their overall health or the dangers of drugs and alcohol.

Using educations and awareness as our tools for creating a substance abuse paradigm shift; HELP AD sought the most logical resource for our citizens' need. The faith-based connection of area churches was identified as our greatest asset. Involving the churches in our mission for substance abuse prevention involved our community at an intimate level; a level that enabled us to reach many people and truly affect change. To this end, Help Ad's priorities became:

• Substance abuse prevention outreach (SAPO) within local churches
• Train Pastors or Key role members of the church, Teens, and Parents to assist or conduct workshops on substance abuse, underage drinking, and prescription drug abuse - the dangers and related issues.
• Community healthcare network database

HELP AD's planning and chosen strategies mapped directly to the capacity of the coalition. Because the coalition is made up of multiple organizations, the capacity as far as manpower and resources, other than financial, was in place to perform the work at hand. To ensure efficiency of the coalition, coalition meetings were held to update members throughout the planning and implementation processes. These meeting were motivational in that they brought HELP AD members together to build and reflect upon their community impact. The meetings also provided an exchange that aided in keeping members accountable for all actions supporting the substance abuse prevention activities. Throughout implementation, education and awareness remained at HELPAD's forefront, ensuring the alignment of our initial assessment and our community need and capacity.

IMPLEMENTATION

In spreading our message of substance abuse prevention, Help Ad put forth the following goals:

• Establish or strengthen Substance Abuse Prevention Outreach (SAPO) within local churches to encourage awareness of the benefits of practicing good health care.
• Establish regular communication with to local churches, and integrate substance abuse trainings & workshops during Association Meeting, Conferences, Sunday School Convention, and after Bible Study
• Disseminate substance abuse prevention materials to SAPO congregations within the church bulletins
• HELP AD to date has trained (15) pastors or key role church members, and (8) youth Community Health Advisors to assist in the dissemination of substance abuse prevention material, or conduct community workshops.
• Conduct workshops for teens and adults on substance and prescription drug abuse, abstinence until marriage www.greattowait.com, dealing with peer pressure, and recognizing the warning signs of substance abuse to improve the educational acumen of workshop participants and lower potential risk-factors of residents of Gadsden and surrounding rural counties.
• Conduct a minimum of 10 workshops at community health fairs, various local church, and the Gadsden County Sheriff Department "God Squad."
• Conduct a specific teen retreat for the sharing of information
• Other related activities

HELP AD has conducted a workshop at the 2004 Florida Statewide Substance Abuse Prevention Conference entitled, Integrating Substance Abuse Prevention Into Faith-Based activities. Guest workshop panelists included professors from Florida State University, School of Nursing; Florida A&M University; Institute of Public Health; local Pastors; and Youth Community Health Advisors trained by the coalition partners.

Black History Month, HELP AD sponsored its first Community Faith-Based Substance Abuse Prevention Summit. The event was such a success, Major General Arthur T. Dean, CADCA's Chairman & CEO, was our keynote speaker, drawing a crowd of approximately 128. Mr. James McDonough, Director of the Florida Governor's Office of Drug Control announced at the luncheon that his office was giving the Gadsden County Public Defender's Office $50,000 to initiate a Drug Court for first time offenders. "This is a great opportunity for Gadsden County, our office is excited and we expect the program to start around the first of April 05'," said Nancy Daniels, State Public Defender.

These actions are effective because they allow us to reach all of our community members at their current levels of understanding. We make the information accessible and clear. This increases the likelihood of information retention and negative behavior modification. Additionally, local churches are the pulse of our Gadsden County community. By enlisting them as keepers of our mission and disseminators of the health/substance abuse prevention information, Help Ad empowers these faith-based institutions and the community members they serve.

EVALUATION

Help Ad's approach to affecting positive change in our community, as it relates to substance abuse prevention, was rather innovative. We focused on our resources and identified the provision of information to our community members as the driving factor of our campaign. By arming Gadsden's citizens with the proper information, we gave them the ability to begin to make better choices related to drugs and alcohol.