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January 2013

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January Announcements

Hello SPF Grantees & Community Prevention Support Team!
This is an email announcement to keep us all up to date on the recent and upcoming happenings around the SPF. There has been a lot of activity in each of the communities and great work being done. Here are a few announcements!


We appreciate everyone’s attendance and sharing at the quarterly grantee cohort call last week. We hope after the deadline passes on January 31, everyone can take a pause and celebrate what you all have accomplished. The Strategic Prevention Framework is a new way of approaching prevention work in our communities, and you all are well on your way to having completed Steps 1 through 3! Here is a quote to keep you motivated as you complete the planning step:


Before everything else, getting ready is the secret of success.” – Henry Ford

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NEW - Implementation Resources Online

Keys to Implementation
As we begin to look toward Step 4: Implementation, this helpful two page information sheet from SAMHSA discusses how to carry out the three main tasks of implementation. This is an excerpt from the Substance Abuse Prevention Skills Training (SAPST), released with permission from CAPT.

  • Mobilize support for your efforts and build capacity around implementation
  • Implement evidence based programs, policies and practices, paying specific attention to adaptation and fidelity
  • Monitor implementation, collect evaluation data, and make mid-course corrections based on what the results show

Download the Information Sheet or
Visit www.alaskaspfsig.org/resources/ for additional resources and tools.
 

Core Components
What Are Core Components... and Why Do They Matter? An online resource from SAMHSA discusses what core components for implementation are and the organizational changes that are often necessary in order to implement evidenced-based programs and practices. Core components are the most essential and indispensable components of an implementation practice or program.

Visit http://captus.samhsa.gov/access-resources/what-are-core-components-and-why-do-they-matter for more information and additional resources.

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Upcoming Trainings & Presentations

Advocacy
The state has organized a webinar on advocacy from the perspective of communities, and how to work with your legislators. This webinar has been scheduled for February 14th from 10:30AM – 12:00PM. The presenters are Kate Burkhart with the Alaska Mental Health Board/ABADA Board & Delisa Culpepper from the Mental Health Trust Authority. Webinar details will be sent via e-mail as they become available.


Data Utilization Webinar Series
This webinar series is designed to increase participant understanding of data utilization. Register here. Specifically, the webinars are scheduled as follows:

  • Webinar 1: January 22, 2:00-3:30PM, Data Utilization: Getting Down to Basics will describe why it is important to use data to improve prevention planning and how data are utilized within each step of the SPF.
  • Webinar 2: February 12, 2:00-3:30PM, Data Collection: Sources and Methods will describe strategies for using existing Alaska and National data sources to better understand a community’s drug and alcohol problems, identify appropriate data collection methods, and determine criteria for assessing quality data.
  • Webinar 3: March 12, 2:00-3:30PM, Data Reporting: Mobilization and Sustainability will describe how to develop an effective data dissemination plan, determine the most appropriate methods for communicating findings to various stakeholders and identify how to use data to mobilize prevention efforts. 

Please register at the following link: https://casatunr.wufoo.com/forms/data-utilization-getting-down-to-basics/. For questions please contact CAPT WRT Associate Coordinator Michelle Frye-Spray at mfryespray@casat.org or Diane Casto at l.casto@alaska.gov.

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Site Visits & Current Activity

Yakutat
The YTT Team and Susie spent two days together in early January to further discuss the identified strategies by the coalition and continue building strategy-level logic models. Creating action plans, gathering evidence-based literature, and finalizing the strategic plan for the January 31 deadline is the focus of YTT now. Pictured is the YTT Team working hard on those strategy-level logic models (from left to right: Lorena Williams, Lisa Nelson, and Lilly Jackson).

Angoon, Kake + Klukwan
Wilbur, Kerry, and Rena are working hard on finishing the strategy-level logic models and creating the action and evaluation plans for each of the strategies they have selected to target youth and adults. They are excited about using the Green Dot strategy in their communities as well as featuring regular alcohol-free events with educational speakers. They are planning to complete the strategic plan by the January 31 deadline.

Nome
Nome has welcomed a new staff member, Lisa Ellanna-Strickling to Kawerak and the SPF project team. Lisa has hit the ground running, and is contributing greatly to the project. Nome project staff are currently planning to come to Anchorage for a two-day working session on January 24-25 to finalize their strategy-level logic models and begin work on the action and evaluation plans. Bridie Trainor is remaining as acting interim coordinator for the Nome SPF project.

Homer
The Homer Prevention Project (HPP) Team just attended a 3-day training in Atlanta on Positive Community Norms, which will be a key component of Homer's SPF strategic plan and implementation. In the next two weeks, HPP will be polishing its action plans and final components to submit its strategic plan. For more about the Positive Community Norms framework and training, see http://www.mostofus.org/.

Fairbanks
There are 8-10 dedicated coalition members, most relatively new, who have really embraced the process and are working to get up to speed. The Coalition has been working hard through weekly meetings to get a strategic plan in place by the deadline at the end of the month. Members have selected three contributing factors to focus on for now knowing that they will be able to return to the others in the future. Spero Manson, the local evaluator, has been helping the group make sure all strategies are informed by data.

Wrangell/Petersburg
The project staff are currently making final revisions to their strategy-level logic models and are well on their way to finishing their strategic plan by January 31. They have decided to use Green Dot as one of their strategies and are planning to travel to Kentucky in February to attend the four-day training. They are excited to be able to share their new knowledge and experiences, when they return, with other grantees who are interested in using the Green Dot strategy. For more information about Green Dot, please see http://www.livethegreendot.com/.

Evaluators
The state level evaluators are in the process of completing the fidelity assessment of Step 1: Assessment and look forward to presenting these results to grantees as they are completed. They are continuing to provide assistance to all grantees on evaluation components of this project, as well as selecting evidence-based interventions and implementation fidelity.

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