Communities That Care

1. Communities That Care

2. What is Communities That Care? (CTC) • Operating system” that focuses on risk and protective factors to provide structure for community efforts to address youth issues. • Addresses: • Substance abuse • Delinquency • Teen pregnancy • School dropout • Violence

3. Community Risk Factors • Availability of drugs. • Availability of firearms. • Community laws and norms favorable to drug use, firearms, and crime. • Media portrayals of violence. • Transitions and mobility. • Low neighborhood attachment and community disorganization. • Extreme economic deprivation.

4. Family Risk Factors • Family history of problem behavior. • Family management problems. • Family conflict. • Parental attitudes toward, and involvement in, substance abuse, crime, and violence.

5. School Risk Factors • Early and persistent antisocial behavior. • Academic failure in elementary school. • Lack of commitment to school.

6. Individual/Peer Risk Factors • Alienation and rebelliousness. • Friends who engage in problem behaviors. • Early initiation of a problem behavior. • Constitutional factors.

7. Individual Protective Factors • Gender • Resilient temperament • Positive orientation • Intelligence

8. Positive Factor: Bonding • Parents and families • Other significant adults • Teachers, school • Peer groups • Organizations • Community

9. How Protective Factors Counter Risk • Individual characteristics provide a foundation for healthy behavior. • To develop or enhance individual characteristics, children and adolescents are given a chance to contribute to their families, schools, and communities. Youth need: • Skills. • The opportunity to contribute. • Recognition for their contribution.

10. How Protective Factors Counter Risk (cont.) • Contribution leads to bonding. • For a bonded child or adolescent, the provision of healthy beliefs and clear standards furnish the structure and corrective feedback needed for positive development. • Ultimately, this progression leads to healthy behavior.

11. Advantages to the CTC Approach • Grounded in theory and practice. • Inclusive and participatory. • Takes a community perspective. • Involves training at every step. • Provides a menu of “best practices” from which to choose. • Is adapted to its own needs by each community. • Includes evaluation and adjustment as an integral part of any effort. • Seems to work for most problem behaviors.

12. Disadvantages to the CTC Approach • Only inclusive and participatory for certain people. • Allows the choice of only a finite number of approaches. • Choosing from “best practices” may encourage communities to merely follow directions rather than throwing heart and soul into the effort. • Narrowly focused. • To a certain extent, based on assumptions. • Has a service to sell.

13. Who should be involved in CTC? • People directly affected by the problem behaviors. • People affected indirectly by the problem behaviors. • Community leaders and decision-makers. • Those with community interest. • The media.

14. How do you employ the CTC approach? • Awareness. • Education. • Community mobilization. • Community assessment. • Prevention plan development. • Program implementation. • Outcomes evaluation.

15. Community Assessment • Youth survey. • Census and accompanying GIS data. • Archival records. • Direct contact with youth and other citizens.

16. Resources to Support the CTC Approach • Money • Expertise • People • Avenues to reach youth