"Experiences in Effective Prevention: Past, Present & Future" 2 of 4

Richard Lucey, Jr. Author

07/16/2018 Added

178 Plays

Description

This interactive session highlights current drug use rates among college students; seven elements of effective drug abuse prevention on college campuses; discussion around a strategic planning process; recommended strategies; and resources that are available to assist in prevention efforts. The session’s content is based around the speaker’s experiences and observations around drug abuse prevention among college students in New York State and with three federal agencies during the past 26 years.

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[00:00:05.121]I'm gonna quickly go through these seven elements.
[00:00:07.370]And just talk about the experiences
[00:00:10.570]that these folks had with a model grant.
[00:00:14.240]First and foremost, the number one,
[00:00:16.890]and they're not really in rank order,
[00:00:18.120]but they sort of follow a progression.
[00:00:20.030]The number one element of an
[00:00:21.820]effective program is leadership.
[00:00:25.120]And we know that leadership really
[00:00:26.430]comes in, you know, many forms.
[00:00:29.020]You can have the college or university president.
[00:00:31.570]You've got the VP for student affairs.
[00:00:33.350]There can be leadership from a faculty member.
[00:00:35.850]Certainly, leaders in our student groups, right?
[00:00:39.710]A local community coalition executive director is a leader.
[00:00:44.430]But on every model program campus the knowledge
[00:00:47.870]and skill of the prevention coordinator,
[00:00:51.470]which I'm sure as probably many of you
[00:00:53.510]in this room are wearing that hat in some way,
[00:00:55.720]shape, or form among the other three hats
[00:00:57.490]that you're probably wearing on your campus.
[00:01:01.130]But the knowledge and skill of the prevention coordinator
[00:01:04.860]was widely recognized as the single most
[00:01:08.470]important contributor to a program's success.
[00:01:11.600]Hi Linda Major. (laughs)
[00:01:15.150]So leadership coming from the prevention
[00:01:17.520]coordinator was the single most
[00:01:19.460]important contributor to a program's success.
[00:01:24.350]Effective leaders share a whole
[00:01:27.000]bunch of different qualities.
[00:01:29.640]They have vision, they can help articulate a clear image,
[00:01:33.490]or articulate to many different audiences a clear image
[00:01:37.010]of a better future for the campus,
[00:01:39.520]students, and for the community residents.
[00:01:42.170]So, you know, vision number one.
[00:01:44.800]Connectedness, they can work collaboratively
[00:01:47.180]with a wide diverse group of people.
[00:01:53.010]We have great organizational skills.
[00:01:56.240]How many of you think about this
[00:01:57.660]in your daily life about what you do on campus,
[00:02:02.240]in meetings, and running a coalition,
[00:02:04.950]or coordinating your program on campus?
[00:02:07.550]You can set agendas, you can run efficient meetings,
[00:02:10.070]you can organize action teams.
[00:02:11.490]You know how to delegate responsibility,
[00:02:13.580]you can hold people accountable.
[00:02:15.330]Just like you are held accountable in your job.
[00:02:19.130]But you also have that skill in the work that you do.
[00:02:23.380]Strategic planning skills is another
[00:02:25.330]attribute that effective leaders have.
[00:02:27.380]I'll talk a little bit more about that after lunch.
[00:02:30.060]Communication skills, knowing how
[00:02:32.330]to communicate with different audiences.
[00:02:35.360]Trying not to fall into the trap of using
[00:02:37.920]what we sometimes call prevention ease, right?
[00:02:44.980]You know, my mentor was Fran Harding.
[00:02:47.220]I've known Fran for 20-plus years.
[00:02:50.150]Colleagues, and friends, and all that.
[00:02:52.580]And she used to tell this story of her dad
[00:02:56.380]not knowing what she does for a living.
[00:03:00.350]I use my mom, you know, but think
[00:03:02.990]about somebody close to you.
[00:03:04.527]You know, think about your brother or your sister.
[00:03:06.650]Think about your kids, think about your mate,
[00:03:09.940]think about your best friend.
[00:03:12.540]Do they really know what you do?
[00:03:17.240]And are you even able to articulate what you do?
[00:03:22.610]I have five younger sisters, so I'm the oldest of six.
[00:03:27.148]You know, it's interesting, I look at my sisters,
[00:03:29.410]and I have a vague idea of what they do.
[00:03:33.690]The only one I'm really clear on
[00:03:34.950]is my one sister who is an ER nurse.
[00:03:37.800]That's pretty clear, you know, she's a nurse in an ER.
[00:03:42.380]But I know a sister that works
[00:03:43.930]for a state education in New York.
[00:03:45.300]I have a sister who works for Verizon.
[00:03:47.210]I have a sister who runs her own business.
[00:03:49.300]But to get into the details of what they do, I have no idea.
[00:03:52.970]They probably had the same connotation about me.
[00:03:54.830]Yeah, well, my brother works for the DEA, right?
[00:03:59.800]So being able to communicate what we do
[00:04:01.950]is one thing, but let me ask you this.
[00:04:04.040]How many of you have been fortunate enough
[00:04:06.950]to have an audience with your campus president?
[00:04:13.551]Okay, specifically, a one-on-one, okay?
[00:04:19.080]Think about this, let's say you were granted,
[00:04:21.780]and I'm gonna be generous, I'm gonna say you're being
[00:04:24.500]given 15 minutes with your campus president, okay?
[00:04:29.240]And he or she wants to know what
[00:04:32.650]you're doing, what you're working on.
[00:04:34.450]What's happening on our campus,
[00:04:35.830]and the drug issues, the alcohol issues?
[00:04:37.890]And you've got 15 minutes, how are you gonna boil it down?
[00:04:44.110]What are the three, and no more than five,
[00:04:46.510]major points you're gonna hit in that 15 minutes?
[00:04:50.270]Have you thought about that just in your daily life
[00:04:53.130]about how I just do that for anybody I talk with?
[00:04:58.150]What if I get, you know, asked to do an interview?
[00:05:01.570]What if I get a meeting with the mayor, right?
[00:05:07.120]You're talking about high level officials
[00:05:08.470]or any administration on your campus
[00:05:11.180]or in your community, business owners and such.
[00:05:13.580]Can you boil down and communicate what you do succinctly
[00:05:17.840]into three to five talking points?
[00:05:21.970]Communication is a significant
[00:05:23.650]skill that effective leaders have.
[00:05:26.650]And they're able to talk to various audiences.
[00:05:28.330]So think about that as we're going through today.
[00:05:34.030]Leaders have significant political skills.
[00:05:36.600]That's small P, not big P.
[00:05:39.070]Learning how to be politically savvy and how
[00:05:41.930]to navigate the political waters if you will.
[00:05:46.260]Many of you might know the name David Anderson
[00:05:49.130]who's a professor emeritus out of George Mason University.
[00:05:51.770]He's written several books on leadership,
[00:05:54.900]and this very issue, and how he connects it to drug use.
[00:05:57.840]He's working on a new book.
[00:06:00.490]He's asked me to write a section on how
[00:06:02.970]to rise above the political climate. (laughs)
[00:06:07.440]Okay, so basically, that's this piece
[00:06:13.230]is trying to relay to people how
[00:06:14.920]to be politically savvy in the world of prevention.
[00:06:20.740]We'll see how we do.
[00:06:23.210]And then, personal traits, optimism and energy.
[00:06:29.220]Effective leaders have optimism
[00:06:30.760]and energy because those two traits,
[00:06:33.890]you will need it working in the prevention field.
[00:06:37.380]I can tell you that in the prevention field,
[00:06:38.960]we'll talk a little bit about this as we go on,
[00:06:40.440]you will have some significant high points
[00:06:42.670]in your work in prevention, and you will have
[00:06:46.500]some horrible low points in this work that we do.
[00:06:51.570]And if you're working on college campuses all I need
[00:06:53.640]to do is say sexual assault or student death.
[00:06:58.110]That's the horrendous low point, right, of what we do.
[00:07:05.070]The second core element is building coalitions.
[00:07:09.050]Mobilizing a coalition has long been recognized
[00:07:12.540]as a key element of successful drug abuse prevention.
[00:07:16.140]In fact, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse
[00:07:18.850]and Alcoholism in a 2007 update to its landmark 2002 report
[00:07:25.420]on changing the culture, in that update highlighted
[00:07:29.630]the importance of campus community partnerships.
[00:07:34.430]We can't do this alone, we do know that.
[00:07:36.460]That's why we have task forces on campuses.
[00:07:38.760]That's why we have coalitions with the community.
[00:07:41.580]And yet when I was at the Department of Education,
[00:07:43.580]our higher ed center at the time,
[00:07:45.450]that was the Department of Ed's higher ed center
[00:07:46.950]before that lost its funding, did a survey
[00:07:49.780]of national senior administrators around the country.
[00:07:53.680]And I was shocked to find that
[00:07:55.470]at that time two-thirds of the campuses did not
[00:07:59.220]have a task force or any kind of a coalition.
[00:08:02.320]Two-thirds of campuses don't have this kind of work.
[00:08:08.490]And yet we know working together collaboratively is a key,
[00:08:13.470]it's a cornerstone of an effective prevention partnership.
[00:08:20.089]You know, you can use NCC as an example, and I'll talk
[00:08:22.810]a little bit about that for statewide initiatives.
[00:08:26.530]So, what we know about coalitions
[00:08:27.780]is there are three parts to it.
[00:08:29.320]Selection and recruitment, obviously, it's the first part.
[00:08:31.630]How do I get people to the table, how do I recruit them?
[00:08:39.910]Pat Fabiano is a colleague that many of us
[00:08:44.530]that have been in the field for quite a while have known.
[00:08:47.360]She was at Western Washington University,
[00:08:49.020]one of the original model campuses.
[00:08:51.000]And she would refer to this process
[00:08:53.460]of recruiting and selecting people to work
[00:08:55.300]on coalition as having 100 cups of coffee.
[00:08:59.730]And we talked about this in the book
[00:09:03.510]because she referred to that as the many opportunities
[00:09:06.700]that she took to just sit down and talk with folks.
[00:09:11.810]That we may not have the absolute same mission.
[00:09:17.860]It's like the DEA and SAMHSA, our missions couldn't be
[00:09:20.900]any more different, but we have a common goal.
[00:09:25.240]So sitting down and having that cup of coffee,
[00:09:27.730]or whatever your beverage of choice is,
[00:09:29.190]or a pizza slice, or whatever it is.
[00:09:31.090]That's sitting down, and talking
[00:09:32.570]about what is your common goal.
[00:09:34.640]That's why I want you to join this coalition, right?
[00:09:39.120]So that's a big piece of the selecting and the recruiting.
[00:09:44.620]But then, you know, you're building this effective team
[00:09:46.960]because you're bringing now the diverse people together.
[00:09:49.740]And that's where the hard work really starts.
[00:09:53.300]I mean, NCC, I was talking to Megan, has more
[00:09:56.190]than 25 campuses in it, and that's on a statewide basis.
[00:10:01.820]You think about even a local coalition.
[00:10:03.880]How many of you are involved in a local, like a drug-free
[00:10:06.910]community coalition, or a local drug abuse coalition?
[00:10:10.270]Right, made up of let's just say
[00:10:13.380]15 or 20 different agencies.
[00:10:16.960]That's 15 or 20 different personal agendas.
[00:10:21.840]Yet you're trying to bring them all together and get them
[00:10:24.700]on the same page for this coalition's unified purpose.
[00:10:28.510]That's very hard work, and trying to get people
[00:10:32.040]to work together toward this common goal,
[00:10:35.130]as opposed to what's in it for me.
[00:10:37.530]People are gonna think that anyway.
[00:10:39.180]You know, what's in it for me?
[00:10:41.340]That's why you have the cup of coffee with them, right?
[00:10:44.780]Just iron that out ahead of time.
[00:10:47.860]And then sustaining, this is so very hard.
[00:10:52.890]Sustaining the coalition, it's an ongoing process.
[00:10:56.250]NCC's been in existence now since 2006,
[00:10:59.700]so it's going on 13 years.
[00:11:02.900]And I would imagine it's been tough to try
[00:11:05.160]and keep the work of the consortium going, right?
[00:11:11.750]And you think about your local coalitions.
[00:11:12.973]Just think about your own work just on your campus,
[00:11:16.490]and trying to keep the momentum going,
[00:11:18.210]trying to keep the energy going, it's very difficult.
[00:11:24.630]So, choosing an evidence-based program.
[00:11:27.310]Most times it can feel like this, right?
[00:11:30.170]You'd think it'd be a simple process.
[00:11:31.690]There are plenty of lists out there, or repositories
[00:11:35.640]that you can go to to look at evidence-based programs.
[00:11:39.660]So you'd think that all I have to do is just go in
[00:11:41.430]and pick one off the list, right?
[00:11:43.080]But a lot of times, you know, you'd think
[00:11:46.590]that it would be easy, but it's not.
[00:11:51.090]You know, just like this graphic, the evidence is made up
[00:11:54.390]of the pieces that are put together.
[00:11:56.550]Here's just a few examples why choosing
[00:11:58.810]an evidence-based program is not so simple.
[00:12:02.100]Program developers who are out to sell
[00:12:03.950]or promote their product, they end up
[00:12:05.310]using words like effective, proven,
[00:12:08.530]model, science-based, evidence-based.
[00:12:11.950]And it's usually without any regard to the actual quality
[00:12:15.000]of the research evidence because they're pushing a product.
[00:12:20.640]They want you to know, hey,
[00:12:21.473]here's an evidence-based program, right?
[00:12:25.250]Well, soon after DEA launched campusdrugprevention.gov
[00:12:31.660]last July, one of the features that you'll see
[00:12:33.860]on the website is called Views from the Field.
[00:12:36.810]And these are guest articles that we've had
[00:12:38.560]people write from around the country.
[00:12:40.020]And Dolores Cimini from the University at Albany
[00:12:43.100]wrote a View from the Field for us
[00:12:45.620]that focused on evidence-based programs.
[00:12:47.990]And one of the tips that she gave about selecting
[00:12:50.900]an evidence-based program is let the buyer beware.
[00:12:56.210]Think about it when you're buying a car,
[00:12:58.510]a TV, and a new appliance, right?
[00:13:02.210]Choosing a school, you do your homework,
[00:13:05.680]you do your due diligence to do your research
[00:13:08.860]to figure out is this the right fit for me.
[00:13:11.910]And that's basically what Dolores
[00:13:13.140]was saying there that just because the product looks nice
[00:13:16.280]and shiny, and it might be inexpensive,
[00:13:18.400]that does not necessarily mean
[00:13:19.890]that it's an effective program, so let the buyer beware.
[00:13:25.540]We're no longer at a point where we can say
[00:13:27.870]we don't know what works, we do.
[00:13:33.180]The NIAAA has helped us out significantly
[00:13:35.900]with the 2002 report, and the follow-up in 2007,
[00:13:40.760]and the launch of College Aim about two years ago.
[00:13:45.860]The surgeon general's report,
[00:13:47.520]which came out two years ago that I was fortunate enough
[00:13:50.250]to be an assistant managing editor on
[00:13:53.500]in the previous administration, came out
[00:13:55.350]with a surgeon general's report
[00:13:56.530]on alcohol, drugs, and health.
[00:13:58.690]There is a whole section in there that talks
[00:14:00.680]about effective prevention programs on college campuses.
[00:14:04.390]Why do you think that is?
[00:14:06.560]Because myself and others who are involved
[00:14:08.170]in this were at the table and talking
[00:14:10.310]about it, right, we know what works.
[00:14:15.160]There was a time that, you know,
[00:14:16.230]you kind of just did stuff because it felt good.
[00:14:19.660]And I'm not saying that people still don't do
[00:14:21.360]that because unfortunately they do.
[00:14:25.290]There are still high schools and colleges
[00:14:27.650]who will put the crashed car in the high traffic area right
[00:14:30.870]around prom time to show you don't let this happen to you.
[00:14:35.440]And yet we know from decades of research
[00:14:38.440]that that scare tactic will not work.
[00:14:41.840]At most, it has a two week shelf life.
[00:14:45.700]We know that about some of the online education programs.
[00:14:48.980]Not gonna name any of them by name, you know who they are.
[00:14:53.650]But there's research, and they will even claim,
[00:14:55.650]they will even tell you themselves
[00:14:57.270]that they have looked at the research.
[00:14:59.390]And an online education program,
[00:15:02.060]the student may take it in the Fall,
[00:15:03.630]and it has an effect in the Fall small semester.
[00:15:06.010]By the time those students come back
[00:15:07.460]in the Spring that effect is gone.
[00:15:12.450]So when you're looking at choosing a program
[00:15:14.640]or choosing a product for yourself
[00:15:16.490]for your prevention work, just do the homework,
[00:15:19.260]and figure out is this the right fit for us?
[00:15:23.150]You know, we talk a little bit
[00:15:24.050]about adapting programs and the fidelity of programs.
[00:15:27.310]And I have said this, you know, I got this from Fran
[00:15:31.280]and others, prevention is not a cookie cutter process.
[00:15:36.379]It never has been, it never will be
[00:15:38.300]a one size fits all process.
[00:15:42.800]That's where it gets tricky, though,
[00:15:44.290]because it's important to remember
[00:15:45.750]that once you've identified the evidence-based program
[00:15:47.780]that you want to implement you can't
[00:15:49.700]necessarily follow the model rigidly
[00:15:52.320]without thinking about your campus's context.
[00:15:55.950]So you're going to have to do some adaptation.
[00:15:59.090]But it's just trying to find that balance
[00:16:00.610]between adapting the model program,
[00:16:03.800]but not adapting it too much that it then becomes something
[00:16:06.440]that's so different that it's not the program
[00:16:10.680]that you took off the shelf so to speak.
[00:16:12.840]And we'll talk a little bit about that this afternoon.
[00:16:18.410]So, we move on to the fourth core element,
[00:16:21.020]implementing strategic planning.
[00:16:22.380]It kind of comes back to this picture,
[00:16:24.780]prevention is not random.
[00:16:29.460]I'm gonna repeat that because it's
[00:16:31.540]that important, prevention is not random.
[00:16:37.850]Prevention has to be intentional,
[00:16:40.550]it has to be purposeful, it needs to be strategic.
[00:16:46.900]I'm gonna talk a lot more about
[00:16:48.350]a strategic process this afternoon,
[00:16:51.510]but you know, strategic planning is woven
[00:16:53.230]all throughout the work that we do.
[00:16:55.240]We think about our timelines, our timelines are strategic.
[00:16:58.240]When our efforts are going to take place.
[00:17:00.920]We think about direction, that is strategic.
[00:17:03.540]Where do we want to go, where do we want to end up?
[00:17:06.570]We talk about our ideas being strategic.
[00:17:08.960]What is it that we want to accomplish?
[00:17:12.370]One of the struggles that we face
[00:17:13.940]in prevention is impatience.
[00:17:17.260]Not only our own, but the people we work for, our funders.
[00:17:22.430]Trust me, there are 535 people in a domed building
[00:17:26.260]in D.C. that are some of the most impatient people
[00:17:30.600]going because they want to see results
[00:17:33.620]in their district yesterday.
[00:17:36.640]Prevention doesn't work that way.
[00:17:39.960]You're never gonna get overnight results.
[00:17:43.030]That's one of the hardest messages
[00:17:44.520]that we try to talk about that we do talk about.
[00:17:48.702]We aren't trying to sell prevention,
[00:17:51.540]and I talk a little bit about that later,
[00:17:52.840]when we're marketing our work and our efforts.
[00:17:57.440]You know, people want results quickly.
[00:17:59.320]And, unfortunately, you know, sometimes practitioners
[00:18:04.320]because of pressure that they're under,
[00:18:05.600]they'll rush out to replicate a program that they heard
[00:18:07.820]about at a conference or you might hear about here.
[00:18:11.830]You know, I'll use BaseX as an example.
[00:18:15.000]Because BaseX as of a couple years ago or so was, you know,
[00:18:17.610]a shiny new toy that everybody wanted to do BaseX.
[00:18:20.690]But is it the right program for your school.
[00:18:23.320]Do you know why you should be doing BaseX,
[00:18:25.370]or why maybe you shouldn't be doing BaseX.
[00:18:27.290]But yet, start to cut corners,
[00:18:28.620]and you start to do, you know, things that weren't
[00:18:31.930]as they're supposed to be done in BaseX.
[00:18:34.180]And then you don't get the results
[00:18:35.180]you're looking for and you wonder why.
[00:18:37.990]So it needs to be strategic, and I'm gonna talk a little bit
[00:18:41.380]more about this strategic approach, more important,
[00:18:45.070]more specifically this bit later.
[00:18:47.550]So, the fifth element is conducting a program evaluation.
[00:18:52.940]You know, wouldn't be nice if evaluating
[00:18:54.470]our prevention efforts was this simple?
[00:18:58.860]Sometimes it can be, most times it isn't.
[00:19:03.690]But if I can tell you, and Megan put the rather long URL
[00:19:08.560]up there for the workshop evaluation.
[00:19:11.250]But I can tell you that if the evaluation form
[00:19:13.240]for this training happens to look like this just make sure
[00:19:15.720]you check the top box, okay, if it's that simple.
[00:19:20.630]But most times evaluation is not.
[00:19:23.610]For me the operative word is time.
[00:19:26.700]Evaluation can not be seen as an afterthought.
[00:19:30.250]When I started at the Department of Ed
[00:19:31.720]that was my federal career, and that was in 1999.
[00:19:34.120]And we were giving out grants left
[00:19:35.790]and right, K-12 and college.
[00:19:40.120]Looking back I can tell you evaluation
[00:19:43.430]was often seen as an afterthought.
[00:19:48.080]There's something else that has taken its place,
[00:19:49.620]and I'm gonna talk a little bit about that later.
[00:19:51.060]But at that time evaluation was seen as an afterthought.
[00:19:54.270]We gave grants to K-12 and to campuses
[00:19:57.150]that did not have the evaluator even named yet,
[00:20:01.790]unless at the time of submission.
[00:20:03.930]And then they got a grant, and then they hired an evaluator.
[00:20:06.970]And the evaluator come on board, and they looked
[00:20:09.030]at this project, and did the Macaulay Culkin.
[00:20:14.550]This is not a good evaluation plan.
[00:20:17.890]They weren't part of it from the beginning, right?
[00:20:21.340]So now we're in a place where,
[00:20:26.220]you know, that was almost 20 years ago,
[00:20:28.140]and prevention science and evaluation
[00:20:30.390]has evolved significantly since then.
[00:20:32.800]But you are looking at three different things
[00:20:34.810]when you're talking about your evaluation.
[00:20:37.760]Process evaluation, don't discount a process evaluation.
[00:20:42.820]Taking a look at how the work is being implemented.
[00:20:47.570]This is where prevention often got accused
[00:20:49.070]of being a bunch of bean counters.
[00:20:51.530]Well, I had 30 people show up at my workshop.
[00:20:56.090]In prevention you have to be able
[00:20:57.350]to answer three questions,
[00:21:00.820]what, so what, now what?
[00:21:06.809]This is all based around evaluation.
[00:21:09.290]What is it you want to do on
[00:21:10.500]your campus or in your community.
[00:21:12.580]And now that you've done it, so what?
[00:21:16.670]Do you have anything to show that what you did works?
[00:21:20.000]And now that you did the evaluation, now what?
[00:21:23.720]What are you gonna do next, right?
[00:21:27.040]So the process evaluation will help you with that,
[00:21:29.830]how the prevention work is being implemented.
[00:21:32.410]You are gonna be looking at outcome evaluation.
[00:21:35.460]This is your short-term, your intermediate goals.
[00:21:38.150]These are the results people want to see yesterday, right?
[00:21:42.700]The grants we gave out in the Department
[00:21:44.090]of Education, they were two year grants.
[00:21:46.400]The grants to prevent high risk drinking
[00:21:48.570]or violent behavior on campus.
[00:21:49.840]They were two year grants, that was all the money
[00:21:53.180]that we had that we could fund.
[00:21:56.520]And I knew that deep down that two years
[00:21:58.450]was not a sufficient amount of time to see
[00:22:01.100]a significant behavior change among a cohort of students.
[00:22:04.840]But it was enough to get them started,
[00:22:07.890]right, so that three to five years down the road,
[00:22:10.470]hopefully, they've operationalized,
[00:22:13.150]you know, what we gave them money for.
[00:22:18.490]Are you headed in the right direction?
[00:22:20.000]That leads you to your impact evaluation,
[00:22:22.040]those are your long-term goals.
[00:22:24.060]That's where you'll start to see the behavior change.
[00:22:27.960]Have the rates started going down?
[00:22:29.970]If I'm looking at alcohol abuse,
[00:22:31.300]am I looking at marijuana use among my students?
[00:22:33.150]Am I looking at prescription drug misuse among our students,
[00:22:35.850]or any cohort of students, or group of students in there?
[00:22:41.920]Peggy Glider is at the University of Arizona.
[00:22:45.300]Also, they were one of the initial model program campuses.
[00:22:49.170]She also was one of my guests
[00:22:50.660]on the podcast series, we talked about evaluation.
[00:22:53.490]And she kind of boiled it down
[00:22:54.570]to these three pieces of advice around evaluation
[00:22:57.130]because this is her niche, this is her area.
[00:22:59.870]These three pieces of advice around evaluation.
[00:23:02.600]Build it from the start,
[00:23:05.530]keep it going, ask for help.
[00:23:11.490]Build it from the start,
[00:23:12.820]keep it going, ask for help, very succinct,
[00:23:17.740]very clear on what we should be doing.
[00:23:23.170]We move on to the sixth core element
[00:23:25.780]of an effective prevention program,
[00:23:27.700]and that's sustainability.
[00:23:29.550]This is the element that I think
[00:23:31.290]has replaced evaluation as an afterthought.
[00:23:38.600]I don't think people are thinking
[00:23:40.420]about how they're going to sustain their efforts
[00:23:44.040]at the beginning of when they're implementing the program.
[00:23:48.120]How many of you are lucky to have a grant of some way,
[00:23:51.070]shape, or form whether it's from a city,
[00:23:52.610]from the state, from the feds?
[00:23:54.570]How many of you actually have a grant?
[00:23:56.440]Okay, how long are the grants, just yell out.
[00:24:00.970]Five years, five years, two years, two years.
[00:24:04.550]Okay, do not wait until your grant
[00:24:08.890]is going to end to start thinking
[00:24:10.340]about how you're gonna sustain your efforts.
[00:24:13.710]That's not the time to be thinking about it.
[00:24:15.580]Unfortunately, it's when people do start thinking about it.
[00:24:18.230]Why, because the money faucet's
[00:24:19.960]gonna be turned off, being blunt about it.
[00:24:25.380]People, I can tell you,
[00:24:27.110]it's unfortunate, I'm blunt about this.
[00:24:28.410]But people think of the federal government
[00:24:29.930]and the grants that they got as their lifeline.
[00:24:34.610]And that's how they would sustain their efforts year
[00:24:36.770]after year, after year, after year.
[00:24:38.050]And that's not what we're there for.
[00:24:40.760]That's not our job, that's not our purpose.
[00:24:44.650]We can give you the seed money to get you started up.
[00:24:47.610]And hopefully you can get that work operationalized.
[00:24:50.750]We talked about this with the model grants.
[00:24:53.300]We talked about this with the high risk drinking grants.
[00:24:56.560]That hopefully you can operationalize
[00:24:58.410]your efforts and make such an impact
[00:25:03.360]that the president, the VP for student affairs,
[00:25:06.220]the budget people will continue to fund you.
[00:25:09.170]But people weren't thinking about sustainability.
[00:25:12.200]So you don't want to wait three years
[00:25:13.980]from now to be thinking about it.
[00:25:15.490]Ask yourself now, where do I see this program
[00:25:18.570]that I'm asked to be a part of or to lead,
[00:25:20.720]where do I see this program in 3 years, or 5 years, or 10.
[00:25:27.320]It goes back to one of those traits
[00:25:28.790]I showed you that effective leaders have,
[00:25:31.150]vision, it's having that vision.
[00:25:34.830]You have to do it for yourself, right?
[00:25:36.800]I mean, how many of you hate that interview question,
[00:25:38.560]where do you see yourself in five years?
[00:25:41.581]Isn't that one of the hardest questions to ask?
[00:25:43.690]Some of you it might not be, it might be real easy.
[00:25:45.690]Oh, yeah, I see myself sitting in your chair.
[00:25:48.270]Don't ever say that in an interview by the way. (laughs)
[00:25:52.130]As somebody who's been on both sides of that table.
[00:25:56.370]But that's what sustainability is, is coming down to that.
[00:25:59.860]So the 22 model programs if I link it back to them,
[00:26:04.290]they found that the best way to sustain
[00:26:06.450]their program's efforts is to link those efforts
[00:26:08.890]to a larger set of issues that the campus cares about.
[00:26:13.450]I'm gonna name four issues, and picture in your mind
[00:26:17.300]how drug abuse prevention links to each one of them.
[00:26:20.470]Student retention and success.
[00:26:24.600]Student health, campus security,
[00:26:30.560]fiscal management.
[00:26:33.940]Do you see a connection to drugs abuse
[00:26:35.530]in every one of those four?
[00:26:39.210]So you tie the work that you're doing
[00:26:41.110]around drug abuse prevention to one of those four issues,
[00:26:44.210]which can be among the top issues
[00:26:46.610]that a campus is concerned about.
[00:26:50.560]We talk about it all the time about,
[00:26:51.650]well, I can't get my college president involved.
[00:26:53.530]He doesn't really want to listen.
[00:26:55.000]She doesn't really care about this issue.
[00:26:56.730]Have you talked about how drug abuse prevention
[00:26:59.080]has an impact on student retention?
[00:27:02.470]You talk about dollars and cents.
[00:27:07.260]You talk about the students, the percentage
[00:27:09.470]of students who are leaving every year or dropping out.
[00:27:13.240]Or as Dr. Arria, Amelia Arria, will talk about stopping out
[00:27:16.180]of college because of alcohol and drugs,
[00:27:19.260]which is money no longer coming into the campus.
[00:27:23.142]I can almost guarantee you got their attention now,
[00:27:26.410]and that's what we talk about.
[00:27:27.950]You don't have to talk to them about
[00:27:28.880]the 39% of students are binge drinking.
[00:27:31.490]Okay, the stat will grab their attention.
[00:27:34.310]But talk about the fact that those students
[00:27:36.180]are leaving our campus because we don't have
[00:27:38.390]prevention efforts in place to help them.
[00:27:44.400]So I'm an alum of the University at Albany.
[00:27:47.400]I mentioned Dolores's name earlier.
[00:27:48.980]And I stay attuned to issues that are affecting the campus.
[00:27:52.410]You know, as just an alum it's just,
[00:27:53.890]you know, I get the newsletter.
[00:27:55.690]I get their online newsletter.
[00:27:56.930]I get an update every quarter about what they're doing.
[00:28:00.500]So I stay attuned to the issues
[00:28:02.980]that are affecting the school.
[00:28:03.960]One of those issues is transition
[00:28:05.890]in senior leadership, especially the president.
[00:28:09.890]Since 1990, that's 18 years,
[00:28:14.820]U Albany has had 12 presidents.
[00:28:20.480]18 years, 12 presidents in either
[00:28:24.150]a permanent or an acting capacity.
[00:28:28.640]And yet, the school's drug abuse prevention program
[00:28:32.350]has continued through all that time.
[00:28:35.940]Now, does it look exactly the same
[00:28:37.530]as it did almost 20 years ago, of course not.
[00:28:40.430]But there are elements that have
[00:28:42.650]remained constant over that 20 years.
[00:28:45.910]The task force, the Middle Earth Peer ed program,
[00:28:50.120]the campus-community coalition, that's just to name a few.
[00:28:53.870]They have sustained over the 20 years
[00:28:56.550]through 12 different presidents.
[00:29:00.350]That is an absolute testament to Dolores,
[00:29:04.640]and to Stella, and others in that health center
[00:29:08.010]and the counseling center being able to make the case
[00:29:12.320]for why this program we need it.
[00:29:17.240]And they sell it different ways depending
[00:29:19.240]on the campus, sometimes on the president.
[00:29:22.732]One of their more recent presidents
[00:29:24.730]had a brother in recovery.
[00:29:26.393](snaps fingers) Connection, right?
[00:29:30.390]Another president, I think it's their most recent president.
[00:29:33.830]All about working together in collaboration.
[00:29:36.900]That's what he did his research on,
[00:29:39.050](snaps fingers) connection.
[00:29:40.620]You zero in on what their interest is and you find your way.
[00:29:44.350]Because I can guarantee you can find a way to talk
[00:29:45.967]about the work you do with just about anybody.
[00:29:49.890]You can make that connection.
[00:29:51.020]So that's how they sustained their efforts.
[00:29:54.780]The last element that I want to talk
[00:29:56.220]about is taking the long view.
[00:30:01.160]The work that we do in prevention is very hard work.
[00:30:06.610]Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise.
[00:30:10.640]How many times have you heard
[00:30:11.970]that drug abuse prevention, referred to it as fluff,
[00:30:17.030]or you've heard prevention referred
[00:30:18.410]to as being a touchy-feely field?
[00:30:22.290]I told you there was a difference,
[00:30:23.390]a culture shift between going
[00:30:24.460]from a predominantly prevention-focused agency
[00:30:27.170]into a law enforcement agency.
[00:30:30.350]Some law enforcement, yep,
[00:30:31.890]they're touchy-feely, others no, right?
[00:30:36.410]But how many times have you heard
[00:30:37.620]prevention referred to as fluff?
[00:30:39.850]First on the chopping block for
[00:30:42.470]budget cuts because it's fluff.
[00:30:46.730]Always push back against that type
[00:30:47.625]of thinking, always push back on that.
[00:30:55.680]Preventing alcohol and drug abuse among college students
[00:31:00.280]and the serious consequences that go with it.
[00:31:03.630]I mentioned sexual assaults, failing grades,
[00:31:06.800]dropping out of school, fights, deaths.
[00:31:10.580]That is serious business, and it should
[00:31:14.450]never be referred to as fluff, never.
[00:31:19.670]So that's why it's up to us to continue
[00:31:21.890]to push back against that kind of thinking.
[00:31:25.310]It's another misperception campaign we're fighting
[00:31:27.850]against that the work we do is light, okay?
[00:31:33.790]So the leaders of the 22 model programs that we studied
[00:31:37.640]have several pieces of advice on how to take the long view.
[00:31:44.070]Learning from other prevention experts is essential.
[00:31:47.720]So you just look at the expertise in this room alone.
[00:31:51.290]I mean, I know for myself I have said this publicly,
[00:31:54.660]I've said it to them personally.
[00:31:56.630]Connie and Linda, two of my top prevention colleagues ever.
[00:32:03.900]I learned from them, I've gone to their sessions
[00:32:07.020]at national conferences, right?
[00:32:09.930]So look around, and look at
[00:32:11.440]the expertise that's in this room.
[00:32:13.240]Then you think about just the expertise
[00:32:15.270]in Nebraska of people who aren't even here yet
[00:32:18.760]or might be watching us online.
[00:32:21.390]Think of the expertise in the state.
[00:32:23.610]Then you think about the expertise that's nationwide.
[00:32:27.410]Start small, and then go big, but think
[00:32:30.240]about all of the expertise that we have.
[00:32:32.970]We can and we do learn from each other.
[00:32:35.820]In fact, our prevention efforts do depend on that.
[00:32:39.830]I like to say in prevention we beg, borrow,
[00:32:41.410]and steal from each other all the time.
[00:32:43.310]I have no problem with that because how many of you
[00:32:47.350]are in this for the money, none of us, right?
[00:32:52.340]So we beg, borrow, and steal,
[00:32:53.640]and learn from each other all the time.
[00:32:56.670]There are going to be setbacks,
[00:32:59.420]no doubt about it, so be flexible.
[00:33:02.140]Flexible is prevention's middle name.
[00:33:05.000]I don't know what the last name is yet,
[00:33:06.480]but we've always said, you know,
[00:33:08.540]flexibility is prevention's middle name.
[00:33:11.350]You've got to learn to be flexible.
[00:33:13.610]Accept the fact that your efforts
[00:33:15.670]are not going to necessarily go as planned.
[00:33:18.330]I have yet to see a prevention plan
[00:33:20.390]go 100% flawlessly without any hiccups.
[00:33:26.070]So just accept the fact it's all part
[00:33:27.620]of the process, so it's okay.
[00:33:30.120]You'll figure it out from each other.
[00:33:31.390]What are we gonna do, what are the midcourse corrections?
[00:33:34.900]We threw a training and two people showed up.
[00:33:37.580]How many times have you done that?
[00:33:39.350]How many times have you presented
[00:33:40.780]at a statewide conference, a community conference,
[00:33:43.320]a national conference, and four people show up?
[00:33:47.950]I told you I was a theater major, I had to learn this.
[00:33:50.490]You know, one of these days I'm gonna write
[00:33:52.080]an article on things I learned from theater
[00:33:53.970]and how it applies to my work now.
[00:33:57.170]Actually, you will learn about it,
[00:33:58.310]I'll add a little bit later today.
[00:33:59.240]But I will tell you that I once was in a production.
[00:34:04.600]I was lucky enough to be the lead in the production.
[00:34:06.930]And it was a Sunday matinee that we were doing.
[00:34:08.750]It was a campus, and it was a campus
[00:34:10.950]well-known for its theater work, right?
[00:34:13.730]10 people at a Sunday performance at 2:00.
[00:34:19.490]Diva that I was at the time, I was thinking I don't want
[00:34:21.480]to go out there for 10 people, really?
[00:34:24.460]Until my director came over well before showtime, and said,
[00:34:28.687]"but those 10 people want to be here."
[00:34:32.370]That changed my perspective like that,
[00:34:35.800]just like the five people that show up for your workshop.
[00:34:39.640]Is it a little disconcerting to not
[00:34:41.100]have standing only in a workshop, sure.
[00:34:44.690]Because it's kind of affirming for you.
[00:34:46.730]You're like, oh, they really have something here.
[00:34:48.820]But just remember the people who are there in the seats,
[00:34:50.980]just like you are in these seats,
[00:34:52.060]you're here because you want to be here.
[00:34:55.580]So that's why I have to perform for you.
[00:34:59.210]I have something for you, you're here
[00:35:00.233]because you want to get this information.
[00:35:03.270]So, you know, we think about this
[00:35:08.500]idea of as we talk about taking the long view,
[00:35:10.930]and as I wrap this up, some of our critics will claim
[00:35:14.280]that this issue of alcohol and drug use is intractable.
[00:35:19.600]That it is so entrenched in the culture.
[00:35:23.890]And I won't disagree that it is
[00:35:26.470]a significant part of the campus culture.
[00:35:28.710]But there are the critics who are claiming
[00:35:30.270]that it is so intractable that nothing can be done.
[00:35:36.320]That if students want to engage
[00:35:37.640]in underage drinking, that if students want
[00:35:39.290]to use marijuana use despite the fact
[00:35:40.990]that it's illegal federally, despite what now nine states
[00:35:44.650]and the District of Columbia have done.
[00:35:48.240]That the problem is so intractable that nothing
[00:35:52.390]is gonna be done, that you're not gonna change their mind.
[00:35:56.470]Ignore those critics, sounds simple,
[00:36:01.310]but ignore those critics.
[00:36:03.600]Because, honestly, I don't think there's much
[00:36:06.310]that you could say to change their mind.
[00:36:10.120]The fact is student alcohol and drug use is not intractable.
[00:36:13.940]We have made great strides over the last 20 to 30 years.
[00:36:17.630]If you want to look at the underage drinking
[00:36:19.210]numbers alone among not only middle
[00:36:22.700]and high school students, but college students.
[00:36:24.540]We hovered in that 39 to 44%
[00:36:27.010]binge drinking rate for decades.
[00:36:30.120]And now we're down into the low 30s.
[00:36:33.370]For the longest time I didn't think
[00:36:35.010]we ever were gonna get down to that.
[00:36:37.080]It felt like we had plateaued.
[00:36:39.150]It's like when you're on a weight management program, right?
[00:36:41.680]You want to lose 30 pounds, and you lost 20,
[00:36:44.320]and you can't lose that extra 10, right, you've plateaued.
[00:36:48.070]It's like, what do I have to do?
[00:36:49.780]But we found a way, we've reached a point.
[00:36:53.280]We have actually reduced the underaged drinking.
[00:36:56.120]We're watching these other upticks that I'm talking about.
[00:36:58.550]The daily and near daily marijuana use,
[00:37:00.900]the prescription drug misuse.
[00:37:02.580]We can't take our eye off of those data points
[00:37:04.910]because that's what drive us, right?
[00:37:07.780]We also don't want to take our eye
[00:37:08.890]off the underaged drinking issue.
[00:37:10.930]We did that with tobacco, and look what happened.
[00:37:13.790]We thought we had solved the tobacco problem.
[00:37:16.810]There's another drug I can mention
[00:37:18.210]that in prevention for the longest time
[00:37:19.810]we thought we had solved in the 90's,
[00:37:21.850]and it's back in a big way, and that's heroine.
[00:37:27.100]That's because we did such a great job
[00:37:28.980]on our prescription drug misuse problem.
[00:37:30.840]That's the thing about prevention,
[00:37:32.450]it's like the whack-a-mole, (laughs)
[00:37:34.540]you know, at the carnival, we talked about it.
[00:37:36.250]It's like, oh, I got it there.
[00:37:37.160]Oh, now this issue popped up, now this one.
[00:37:39.350]We're constantly moving, that's not fluff, right?
[00:37:44.770]It's really important the work that we're doing.
[00:37:47.820]So, as we wrap up for lunch I'd say
[00:37:49.870]with this with taking the long view
[00:37:51.420]is to just have faith in your vision.
[00:37:54.310]Just remember that change takes time.

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"Experiences in Effective Prevention: Past, Present & Future" 2 of 4

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