Alaska's SPF SIG e-Newsletter

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March 2012

In This Issue:

• Save the Date: June 7 Quarterly Teleconference for Grantees
• A Note from Devon About Preparing a Budget for Year 2
• Spotlight on Resources: Secondary Data, Suggested Assessment Report Outline
• Community Readiness: The Tri-Ethnic Model
• Notes from the March 8, 2012 Grantee Teleconference

Save the Date: June 7 Quarterly Teleconference

Most of you have probably already received an official calendar invitation by email, but in case you haven’t yet had a chance to respond, here is another reminder to save the date of June 7, 2012, from 10:30 a.m. until noon Alaska time. We’ll hear from each grantee about progress, challenges and success stories, answer your questions, and share any new information or resources that have come our way.

If you would like to participate but have not received an email invitation, please feel to email Karen Benning (karen@agnewbeck.com) to request teleconference details.

A Note from Devon About Your Year 2 Budget

Dear SPF SIG Grantees:

Some of you have been wondering about how to put project budgets for FY 13 together because many of the activities and actions that will take place in Year 2 will be dependent on the outcome of the Assessment process in Year 1. Since the Assessment process is not complete for many grantees, I have compiled some advice in putting budgets together to be submitted with the Continuation Application.

• Suggestion 1: Use the Assessment Timeline for ideas on general activities/actions that will take place in Year 2. For example, if you think that your community will have to do activities around increasing community readiness based on the results of your Community Readiness Assessment, be sure to include funds to do Capacity Building activities. If you anticipate that you will likely have a strategic planning work session to review evidence based strategies and select the ones that best mesh with your Intervening Variables and Contributing Factors, you might want to include stipends for coalition members to attend, space rental, the cost of lunch and any other materials that you might need.

• Suggestion 2: First fill out the costs you are sure of for Year 2 – for example: staffing costs and facility costs. Then concentrate on elements of the budget that might be harder to define.

• Suggestion 3: You can establish a “pot” of funding in one or several particular categories – for example: you could set aside a reasonable amount for training that will be defined by the outcome of Year 1 and put a note in your budget narrative that specific training activities will be defined by the outcome of Year 1. Then, as your needs become more apparent, contact me and share how you anticipate moving forward with a particular line item. We are open to grantees amending their budgets after the first of the year through Line Item Budget Revisions (LIBRs).

• Suggestion 4: Grantees can establish a “pot” of funding in the “Other” category and explain in the budget narrative that strategies will be defined in Year 2.

• Suggestion 5: E-mail me a draft budget to review. I have already provided feedback to some grantees on draft budgets and am happy to give feedback and guidance to any grantee who wishes to send a draft her way for review.

Some important dates to remember are:
Continuation Application:        Due March 28
Quarterly Report for Q3:         Due April 30
Quarter 3 CFR:                       Due April 30
Completion of Step 1:             June 30, 2012

I hope that this e-mail gives you some guidance. If you have any questions/comments/or concerns, please feel free to e-mail or call me.

Devon Lewis, Project Assistant

Email devon.lewis@alaska.gov
Phone 907.465.8407

Spotlight on Resources: Secondary Data, Assessment Report Outline

Alaska has been fortunate in its ability to learn from the experiences of other states in carrying out the Strategic Prevention Framework State Incentive Grant. One state in particular, Minnesota, developed an excellent toolkit that includes specific suggestions for secondary data for each key assessment question (what are the characteristics of the community, is the community ready to make change, etc.). The guide includes topic areas, examples of data that can be used for that topic, and some options for how to collect the data.

The toolkit also includes a suggested outline for the final assessment report. See these two helpful resources by going to the Strategic Prevention Framework - Tools + Resources page at the Alaska SPF SIG website (www.alaskaspfsig.org) and clicking on the “Assessment Secondary Data Ideas + Report Outline” link.

Community Readiness Assessment

One of the major pieces of telling your community’s story is looking at how ready the community is to make change. There are a number of tools available to conduct a community readiness assessment; several Alaska grantees are using a model developed by the Tri-Ethnic Center for Prevention Research at Colorado State University. This model looks at readiness from two angles: individual domains of readiness (such as leadership, awareness, and community climate) and overall level of readiness on a scale from 1 to 9 (1 being no awareness, 9 indicating a high level of community ownership). We have added some resources that might be helpful if you plan on using the Tri-Ethnic Center’s Community Readiness Model in your project area, including:

• A slide presentation that offers an overview of the model and information about each of the six steps in the readiness assessment process

• The baseline list of questions developed by the Tri-Ethnic Center, which can be adapted to meet your community’s needs

• Samples of interviews representing three different types of community members (service provider, clergy member, and a community member at large)

• Scoring sheets for each of the 6 domains

• Scoring sheet for overall community readiness

• A tool for sharing the results with a group (coalition, community) and tracking the group’s ideas about community strengths, concerns and resources

To access these resources, go to the “Step 1: Assessment” section on the Strategic Prevention Framework - Tools + Resources page of the Alaska SPF SIG website (www.alaskaspfsig.org).

Notes from March 8 Grantee Teleconference

Community Support Team members on the call:

Thea Agnew Bemben, Agnew::Beck Consulting thea@agnewbeck.com

Susie Amundson, Wise at Work (working with CICADA) susie@wiseatwork.net

Shelly Wade, Agnew::Beck Consulting (working with RurAL CAP) shelly@agnewbeck.com

Focus of Today’s Conversation – Thoughts from Community Support/TA Team

• We recognize that grantees have been doing a tremendous amount of reporting, to the State, the State Evaluators, the Community Support/TA Team.

• We have also heard a shared desire to increase communications between grantees so that you can learn about how others are approaching the different tasks and challenges of this work.

• Today, we’d like to work with grantees to shift the conversation away from reporting to one of sharing. Specifically, it would be great to share feedback on the different approaches and ideas for conducting different activities in Step 1: Assessment.

• As grantees, you should feel like you can rely on your fellow grantees as a resource. You are all working through this complex process at the same time and together. We strongly encourage you to get in touch with each other outside of the quarterly cohort teleconference. Work with each other to build a network of ongoing support.

Approaches + Ideas for Step 1 Activities

Coalition Building

• Esther from Homer – We’re just getting started on building our coalition and thinking about how all of the different groups can work together. We developed an organizational chart and this was super helpful. This helped define relationships and how people are working together. Our group is actually a subgroup of the larger MAPP (Mobilizing for Action through Planning + Partnership) coalition.
Action: Esther will share her organizational chart with the TA team and they will post to the project website.

• Bridie from Bering Strait – The Nome group has decided on a different name for their coalition to better communicate that this group is going to take action through community-based and implemented strategies. They are the “Bering Strait Community Alcohol Safety Team” or CAST.

• Desiree from Wrangell-Petersburg – Roles + Responsibilities of Coalition Members; pretty basic
Action: Desire will share the group’s roles and responsibilities outline with the TA team and they will post to the project website.

• Bobby – Provided an overview of project shift for Bering Strait. The project focus will now be on Nome. However, the three original villages will remain involved through participation on the CAST. Additionally, the adult survey will be launched in the villages to measure the impact of Nome-based strategies on outlying villages.

Adult Survey

• Esther in Homer – Doing phone survey via the local evaluator.

• Rhonda in Yakutat – Don’t have approved protocol or process yet, but have done the following:
o Had Tri-Ethnic community readiness training in the fall.
o Conducted key informant interviews.
o Learning from AmeriCorps and AKEELA collaborative data collection effort that happened recently – how did this go? What lessons were learned?
o Community dinner – Conducted a project introduction and community perception survey in the context of a community dinner.
o Coalition is leading the data collection effort – Five members of coalition that are engaging in this. They will use lessons learned from items above to put together plan (and then submit to State Evaluators for their approval).

• SEARHC
o No specific data collection plan in place, but are and will continue to work through local coalitions (originally suicide prevention-focused), to develop the right process in each community.
o Kake – Project team was in Kake during cohort call and will conduct the adult survey at a community dinner.
o Other ideas will shake out.

• Wrangell + Petersburg
o We’re camping out at grocery stores – it’s the way people get information out. There are two grocery stores in each community.
o We’re also going to camp out at local libraries.
o In Wrangell, they’ll also use Survey Monkey links + Facebook.

• Approval for Surveys/Data Collection Plan
o Jesse – We went through the Alaska Area Institutional Review Board for the adult survey. They are requiring “community/tribal approval for the survey.” How that is defined will be determined by individual grantees. However, Jesse needs to see that approval in written form.
EXAMPLE: Bering Strait will work with Kawerak and Norton Sound Health Corporation to get appropriate community/tribal/regional approval. Both entities will write a letter approving the survey.
o Question – What is the approval process for the data collection plan? Jesse/EPI Workgroup needs to see and approve each grantee’s data collection plan. This will help grantees troubleshoot any challenging or problem areas in their plan and provide opportunity for improving the plan, if necessary.

• Youth Behavioral Risk Survey

• Data Collection in General (including secondary data sources)
o Anda from Bering Strait project – Nome Community Survey that the City of Nome conducted has been a great source of additional data. Mainly perceptions-related. Might be a good idea for others, as it’s not a traditional secondary source for substance abuse data.

General Comments, Items to Share
• Question from Homer: How are other projects staffed?
o Wrangell + Petersburg – 2 FTE; 1 PT (half-time – 20 hours/week)
o SEARHC – 1 local evaluator; 3 PT staff in each community; 1 PT person in Sitka
o Yakutat – 2 FTE; 1 PT

• Update from Diane on continuation application
o Cindy Tappe should have sent out an email to each grantee with initial information on the continuation application process; hard copy letters should have been sent out as well
o Deadline date is March 28th. Submission is by email and should be sent to Cindy Tappe and Devon Lewis.

• Question from Bering Strait: What kind of training is available? What are other grantees doing?
o Wrangell-Petersburg + Yakutat have done community readiness training
o The Community Support/Technical Assistance Team should be considered a resource for your training needs. We can customize training to meet your needs or direct you to a resource where you can get the appropriate assistance.
o Diane – CAPT (Collaborative for the Application of Prevention Technologies) is conducting a coalition training coming up in May and there will be access to training via webinar.
Action: TA Team will post link for more info on the project website.

• Question from Bering Strait: What are other grantees doing with regards to getting youth perceptions?
o Gloria in Yakutat – We have a youth group here that does a lot of different youth activities in the community. The perceptions survey interviews and focus groups were done in the context of those established activities.

Resources Available to Grantees
• Website, blog: subscribe on website home page (alaskaspfsig.org)
• EBI work group final report coming out soon
• Suggested outline for assessment report coming out soon