Background
The Lynn Communities That Care initiative began in 2004 in response to concerns raised by several key stakeholders about the growing problems in the community related to oxycontin and heroin abuse and related overdose deaths. The subsequent development of the Lynn Drug Task Force and an investigation of prevention approaches led to the decision to adopt the Communities That Care prevention model.
A growing body of research in the field of prevention science has provided valuable information on how to support healthy youth development and protect against problem behaviors in adolescence by reducing risk factors and enhancing protective factors in children’s lives. Risk factors are those factors within the community that increase the likelihood of engaging in negative behaviors while protective factors are those factors that reduce the likelihood of negative behaviors and promote healthy development. Researchers have developed and tested programs to address these risk and protective factors, identified those programs that have been shown to be effective, and have developed tools to help match tested, effective programs with a community’s unique profile of risk and protective factors.
In 2004, Lynn was awarded a $25,000 grant through the Purdue Pharma Drug Company to support the implementation of the Communities That Care initiative, a practical, research-based, outcome-focused approach that involves the whole community in the process of promoting positive youth development. Additional funding was obtained from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the City of Lynn, the North Shore/Cape Ann Community Health Network and North Shore Imaging Center and from participant donations from American Refill, Willow Labs, Habit Management, and the North Shore Medical Center. Project COPE, a substance abuse treatment provider based in Lynn, is serving as the lead agency for this initiative.
Accomplishments
Formed in October 2004, the Lynn Communities That Care initiative actively worked toward the creation of a community action plan. The community board consisted of approximately 25 to 30 members representing all aspects of the community including service providers, law enforcement, schools, community members, and other key stakeholders in the community, all of whom shared a common and positive vision for Lynn, its youth, families, and neighborhoods. Over the course of several months, this working group met to:
- Identify the goals of the initiative, address readiness issues, and recruit new coalition members
- Conduct a community assessment to determine the unique risk and protective factors that exist within the community. This process of identifying the community’s unique risk factors involved reviewing all available archival data obtained from such sources as the schools department, the criminal justice system, the Department of Social Services, and local service providers. The identification of the community’s protective factors resulted from the widespread review of existing resources and services gaps, a process that included the active solicitation of input from a broad range of community members and leaders.
- Determine which risk and protective factors to prioritize to establish a starting point for this initiative.
- Identify strategies for reducing the existing risk factors and enhancing the existing protective factors.
During its first seven months of existence, the Lynn Communities That Care initiative was successful in:
- Creating subcommittees responsible for outreach and public relations, youth involvement, and community assessment
- Recruited 12 youth who actively participated on a youth advisory council
- Created public awareness of the initiative through the ongoing use of media outlets
- Identified scientifically proven strategies to include in the community action plan
- Created four new subcommittees designed to implement an action plan for each of the four identified risk factors to be prioritized in this initiative, and which will involve a media/public relations component, youth involvement, and measurement of outcomes.
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