In 2010, Youth First, Inc., a leading local non-profit in the prevention of substance abuse, was awarded a grant through the Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment (SAPT) Block Grant. Working with the Indiana Division of Mental Health and Addiction and the Indiana Prevention Resource Center, Youth First began building a coalition made up of community members dedicated to providing healthy youth development in Warrick County. Using the national and statewide Communities That Care (CTC) process, created by professors of social work, J. David Hawkins, PhD and Richard F. Catalano, PhD at the University of Washington, the coalition began working to address and prevent problem youth behaviors which include substance abuse, delinquency, teen pregnancy, school dropout, violence and behavior health issues. The process is based on the Social Development Strategy, which identifies risk factors that predict these problem behaviors and the protective factors that can buffer children from the risk and problem behaviors. The identified risk factors and problem behaviors are specific to the community instead of using one method to address all community problems.
In 2013, Warrick County Cares was awarded a Drug Free Communities Support Grant through the Office of National Drug Control Policy. This 5 -10 year grant helps build capacity for the coalition and works to reduce underage alcohol consumption and marijuana use. The Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) is used to Step 1: Assess Community Needs - What is the problem? How can we learn more? Step 2: Build Capacity - What and who do we have to work with? Step 3: Plan - What should we do and how should we do it? Step 4: Implement - How is the plan put into action? Step 5: Evaluate - Is the plan succeeding? There are two additional guiding principles; 1) Cultural Competence - The ability to interact effectively with members of a diverse population and 2) Sustainability - The process of achieving and maintaining long-term results.