Implementing Science Based Prevention: The Experiences of Eighteen Communities and Progress Towards Inter-Agency Coordination to Reduce Alcohol and Substance Abuse Among Adolescents

Washington State was awarded a nine million State Incentive Grant (SIG) for the dual purposes of promoting prevention system changes among state agencies and of implementing more evidence-based prevention programs. The ultimate goal was to increase coordination and efficiency and to improve outcomes of prevention activities so that fewer youth would abuse alcohol and drugs. Washington State visualized these system changes as occurring within a framework of decentralized power, where better coordination would follow from a common purpose and from a decision-making framework based on better information. The system would still give local constituents choices of local prevention foci, resource coordination, and program selection, but within a common, outcome-based framework established among diverse state agencies. State agency objectives within this framework were to: 1) Agree on a common set of prevention goals and outcome measures 2) Develop common assessment tools of community needs and resources 3) Identify selection criteria and a common set of science-based prevention 4) Develop a uniform reporting mechanism for participant outcomes 5) Establish guidelines for leveraging and redirecting resources 6) Create a cross-agency system of professional development