Partnerships for Success (PFS)
Bureau of Positive Youth Development Prevention
Division of Family and Community Services
Illinois Department of Human Services
Program Description
The Illinois Partnerships for Success grant provides an opportunity for meaningful collaboration between state leaders and community members in order to build capacity for substance abuse prevention. Our goal is to reduce the high school (10th grade and 12th grade) 30-day use rate from 40.6% to 35% by 2012. Childhood and underage drinking are serious problems in Illinois that can have severe consequences. Through the use of the Strategic Prevention Framework process, twenty Illinois coalitions identified the intervening variables contributing to and protecting their youth from problems associated with childhood and underage drinking. As required by the grant, 85 percent or $1.9 million annually will be directed to the sub-recipient communities throughout Illinois that are "high contributors" to the state's underage drinking rate. With proactive support and technical assistance, funded sub-recipients and their coalitions will implement evidence-based environmental strategies that target social and retail access to alcohol by minors, policies and enforcement strategies to reduce and/or prevent underage drinking. Strategies are implemented in a culturally competent and sustainable manor with oversight by a multi-sector community coalition that includes local youth, parents, school, law enforcement, faith-based, and other youth-serving organizations. At the state level, policy makers and other key stakeholders will initiate and implement policies, redirecting programming at both the state and local levels for long-term impact. The Statewide Advisory Council, the Statewide Epidemiological Outcomes Workgroup and the Evidence-based Programs Workgroup will work towards the achievement of state-level goals and milestones to obtain maximum impact on the predictors and consequences of childhood and underage drinking. Illinois was awarded the Partnerships for Success Grant in October 2009 and is eligible for non-competitive re-application for up to five years.
Target
Youths ages 13 - 18 in 20 funded communities: Adams County, Carroll County, Tazewell County, Woodford County, Jefferson County, City of Rockford, City of Freeport, Village of Mundelein, Bloomington-Normal, Village of Dolton, Maine Township, and the following community neighborhoods in Chicago: Back of the Yards, Humboldt Park, Little Village, South Shore, Roseland, Bridgeport-Armour Square, Austin, Hermosa, and Chatham.
Purpose
The purpose of the Illinois Partnerships for Success Grant is to use a community-based participatory approach to addressing underage drinking (13 - 18 years old) through evidence-based environmental strategies. The Illinois Partnerships for Success project will focus on the statewide prevention priority of reducing underage and childhood drinking.
Services
Strategic Prevention Framework Process (i.e. assessment, capacity building including the use of a local community coalition, strategic planning, implementation of evidence-based environmental strategies, and evaluation) in a culturally competent and sustainable manner to address community risk and protective factors associated with underage drinking.
Delivery Method
Grantees will provide, broker and/or leverage services that target the entire community and/or community's prevention system. Strategies include but are not limited to policies that deter underage drinking, training for local beverage servers, marketing underage drinking prevention messages, and drinking enforcement strategies such as party patrols by local police, sobriety check points, and retail compliance checks.
Program Data
| $2.3 million |
| 20 |
| 1.2 million |
Program Accomplishments
The Partnerships for Success program increases protective factors in the targeted communities (such as community mobilization, community organization, and opportunities for community engagement and parental involvement) as well as reduces risk factors associated with youth substance abuse and other delinquent behavior (i.e. changing community norms about drinking, changing youths perception about drinking, education community members about the harm of underage drinking, increasing community involvement for youth, reducing social and retail access to alcohol).
