Seeking 'Partnership' Solutions To Substance Abuse Problems

A community quiz: Can you name this Randolph non-profit?

Clue #1: Established five years ago under the aegis of the Tobacco-Free Coalition, it got its first paid employee this year, thanks to a state/federal grant.

Clue #2: It has 14 "member organizations." They include the local hospital, police department, and public library, as well as local public schools, Vermont Technical College, the sheriff's department, and a number of area churches and human services agencies.

Clue #3: Its tagline is: "Healthy Choices, Healthy Communities, Healthy Lives," and its current, top goals are reducing underage drinking and marijuana use by young people under 25.

Give up?

The average citizen may not be familiar with the Prevention Partnership of Braintree, Brookfield, and Randolph (PPBBR), but the organization has worked steadily with its partner organizations for years to tackle substance abuse, especially among young people, in the three-town area.

Organized in 2003 by Susan DeLattre, then director of the Tobacco-Free Coalition, the non-profit has been led since this summer by its first fulltime executive director, Andre Souligny.

A thoughtful man with an extensive background in human services, Souligny, 39, aims to make the organization he now leads as effective—considering both costs and results—as possible.

In a recent interview in his minimally furnished office at the Boys & Girls Club offices in Randolph, Souligny noted that the Prevention Partnership aims to "focus on environmental change, rather than on individual treatment."

How do you change an environment that, in dozens of subtle and not-sosubtle ways, encourages young people to abuse substances?

Not through wishful thinking, and not by trial and error.

The problems are too pressing and money too scarce to experiment with "what people think will solve the problem," Souligny commented.

He promotes the use of "evidence-based" solutions—using research and hard data to find the programs and policies that actually do make a difference. That kind of ammunition, powered by a unified community, can change social norms, he says.

As an example of such a strategy, Souligny cited research of underagedrinking laws in other states. Consequences in New Hampshire are "much more severe" than in Vermont, he said, and data shows that fewer young people in New Hampshire are choosing to drink, as a result.

Souligny has used the "evidence-based" approach at a Barre teen center and a residential re-entry house for youthful offenders just released from prison. A Minnesota native who moved to Vermont in 1996 to attend Goddard College, and then settled in Central Vermont, Souligny has also worked with prisoners convicted of felony domestic abuse crimes.

His PPBBR position is funded by the "SPF SIG" initiative (Strategic Prevention Framework/State Incentive Grant), which will pay the Partnership up to $120,000 to for the next four years. PPBBR is one of 23 coalitions in Vermont receiving federal funds, funneled through the state, to find solutions to youth substance abuse problems—at the community level.

Souligny's mission for the first year of funding was to bring more of the community to the Prevention Partnership table. PPBBR has an impressive list of partners, but Souligny is still looking to add youth and business representatives.

Starting next year, the Partnership will decide which programs to take on. He and PPBBR member organizations are researching their options now.

Souligny is also meeting with people, ages 18-25, to collect their ideas in focus group discussions. He is seeking participants for the next session, in December, with a small stipend to be paid to participants.

Over the past five years, the Prevention Partnership of Braintree, Brookfield, and Randolph has sponsored a variety of programs. They have included the "Dear Dawn, Ask Amy" newspaper column, and mailings to parents about underage drinking laws and how to keep their kids safe during graduation party time.

This spring, RUHS/RTCC graduates who signed a pledge not to drink during graduation and prom nights received prizes donated by local businesses. Teens participating in an "Alco-Pop" quiz July 4th were eligible to win an iPod. The challenge—and it was a tough one, Souligny said—was to separate traditional "energy drinks" from similarly-packaged alcoholic ones.

Alcohol companies, Souligny charged, are targeting their marketing to underage people.

According to Souligny, getting serious about prevention "is the most important and most challenging work" that a community can do.

That's because prevention, he said, "requires people to take a different kind of attitude about community than they used to—it requires that they make things their business."

For more information or to get involved in the Partnership, contact Souligny at 728-3780, or go to www.ppbbr.org.

Troubling Stats

Communities can, and must, tackle the issue of alcohol and drug use by our young people, according to Souligny.

We can't afford to delay, Souligny maintains. Data collected so far—via youth-risk surveys, and referrals to Diversion, and other statistics— indicate that lots of young people are using and abusing alcohol, marijuana and other drugs at a brisk rate. A recent survey, for example, indicates that 39% of Vermont students in grades 8-12 reported drinking alcohol during the past 30 days.

That's down from 10 years ago (53%), but Souligny pointed out another indicator that shows the problem is hardly disappearing: Police made 170 referrals to Orange County Diversion for underage drinking last year—a big increase from the prior year with 100. (Diversion is a program for firsttime offenders that allows them to take responsibility for their offenses, outside of the court system.)

Data indicate that binge drinking and marijuana use among the state's 18- 25-year-old crowd have also declined in the past 10 years—but are still well above national averages.

According to the state Health Department, 34% of 12th grade students reported using marijuana in the past year; for 18-25-year-olds, it was 41%.