“Communities That Care” To Target Teen Drinking, Drug Use

by Joan R. Simon

(March 30, 2006) A teen center for Mamaroneck students? Bringing back the Cove? These were some of the ideas that capped off a meeting on March 29 where members of the Larchmont-Mamaroneck community learned more about a program called “Communities That Care” (CTC). The CTC program is designed to tackle the difficult issues of teenage drug, alcohol abuse and other unhealthy adolescent behaviors by changing the community environment.

The meeting was sponsored by RADAR (Responsible Action: A Drug and Alcohol Resource), a school-based alcohol and drug prevention group that has evolved into a coalition of groups representing the entire community.

Individuals from all sectors of the community crowded the large activity room at the Larchmont Avenue Church at 8:30 on Wednesday morning. Among the nearly 100 participants were representatives from the three municipalities, the PTAs, the local police departments, recreational sports, LMC-TV, Girls Scouts, the Mamaroneck schools, the Village of Mamaroneck Chamber of Commerce, Rye Neck schools, the United Way and the Larchmont Rotary Club.

“We are not here to fix kids. Kids are not broken,” explained CTC trainer Julia Dostal. The message instead was: we need to fix the environment “to grow healthy adults.” The CTC program, which is now run by the U.S. government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, is based on 30 years of scientific studies that have made direct correlations between risk factors and unhealthy teen behavior. More importantly, this research has demonstrated that by reducing risk factors and increasing protective factors, teen behavior can be improved.

Some of the relevant risk factors are: availability of drugs and alcohol, poor academic performance, lack of family supervision and discipline, and insufficient law enforcement. Protective factors buffer young people and reduce the effect of exposure to risk factors. These include strong relationships with adults who model positive behavior and expect the same from young people. They also include opportunities for teens to become involved in school, community service and work. “Young people are relationship-oriented,” the CTC leader explained. “When young people are bonded to adults that have healthy beliefs and clear standards, the outcome is affected.”

How Long Does This Process Take?

How does a community go about changing the environment to “grow healthy adults?” The CTC process is ambitious and far-reaching, with a 10 to 15 year time frame. The five stages are: developing an infrastructure to oversee the process; gathering data, most importantly through a youth survey; developing a plan based on the community profile that emerges from the data; implementing the plan, with the assistance of government funding; and evaluating the plan on a regular basis. Trainers are supplied at no cost by the New York State Office of Alcohol Substance Abuse Service to assist at every stage. The CTC leaders stressed that this is an “organic” process that needs to be modified and adjusted as the program develops.

“You know you have a problem and you know you have to attack it as a community," explained Janet Buchbinder, the coalition coordinator for the CTC process and a member of the Mamaroneck School Board.  "CTC gives you an integrated approach to be effective and successful that involves a very carefully worked out process that you move through step by step."

Where Do You Start?

In the fall of 2005, RADAR obtained a mentoring grant through New Rochelle’s Project Focus to help the Larchmont-Mamaroneck community start phase one of the CTC process. The CTC leaders were quick to point out that Mamaroneck is well ahead of the game because it already has an organization, RADAR, that can serve as the central board for the Communities That Care process. But many additional participants and working groups will be needed in order to tackle a project of this magnitude. Wednesday’s Key Leader Orientation was the first introduction to the CTC process and a call to members of the community to come aboard. A grant application to fund the next stage of the process will be submitted in April with the Larchmont-Mamaroneck Community Counseling Center serving as the lead agency.

One of the first assignments a community needs to work on is gathering data about itself. In 2002, Mamaroneck administered the Communities That Care Survey to middle school and high school students. The survey revealed that alcohol use among Mamaroneck students was well above the national average (see: Mamaroneck Teen Drinking Way Above Average).

A new CTC Youth Survey will be given to middle and high school students in April to determine the risk factors that are prevalent in the community and the protective factors that may be lacking. The results will be tabulated over the summer and presented to the community in October. The new survey will provide fresh data and can also be compared with the earlier survey to track trends in the community over the past four years.

The survey information and data gathered from other sources, such as hospitals and the police, will be used to develop a profile of the community. Based on that profile, a Community Action Plan will be initiated. Ms. Buchbinder explained that “in order to be effective to change the social norms in an environment, you have to approach it with multiple strategies over multiple sectors.” This approach has been effective nationally with other public health issues, such as smoking and heart disease. She singled out three specific areas that need to be addressed: reducing availability of alcohol and drugs; improving effectiveness of law enforcement; and changing the social norms. “You have to look at needs assessment from these three areas and look at your community and choose programs and strategies to address your particular needs.”

How Much Will This Cost?

Most of the money will come from outside the community. Every group that has followed the CTC process has received federal funding to support their action plan. The key is the plan itself. “It will put you in the driver’s seat to get a lot more funding,” one of the CTC group leaders remarked, describing the completed plan as “what the government wants to see to give money.” Communities in Westchester that have already started the CTC process include New Rochelle, Ossining, Mt. Vernon, and Eastchester.

What do Teens Think?

Following the formal presentation, questions were put to a group of high school members of SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions, formerly Students Against Driving Drunk), who attended the meeting. When asked what would help improve their environment and reduce risk factors for unhealthy behavior, there was a strong consensus that teens need more weekend activities. Junior Sarah Chapin said that while the community provided a lot of support in the schools, such as the DARE program and health classes at the middle and high schools, it was “not providing kids with things to do” outside of school, especially on weekend nights. The activity students seemed to miss the most was the Cove, which closed almost two years ago. Efforts to revive it have so far failed. (See: Teen "Nightclub" Closes: What Comes Next? and New Venue for Teen Nightclub -- in a Garage?).

Larchmont Mayor-elect Liz Feld raised the issue of a teen center. Mamaroneck Superintendent Paul Fried told the meeting that he and Rye Neck Superintendent Peter Mustich had been working with a group of students from both schools on the possibility of a youth center at Mamaroneck Harbor. Deputy Mayor Bill Paonessa said that the Village of Mamaroneck was interested in pursuing this idea with the two school districts.

To become involved with the “Communities That Cares” project, contact: RADAR, 1000 W. Boston Post Rd., Mamaroneck 10543 or coalition coordinator Janet Buchbinder, 914-834-6041, jntmcb@aol.com . For more information, go to Communities That Care.

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