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Saratoga
Partnership for
Prevention
Youth and Adults Working Together
for a
Safe and Healthy Community
Communities That
Care (CTC) is a community-specific, research-based,
framework that helps communities build coalitions to initiate
activities that both promote positive youth development and prevent
risky adolescent behaviors such as substance abuse, delinquency, teen
pregnancy, school dropout, and violence. This process includes a
comprehensive assessment of the needs and resources in our community or
order to build a realistic community profile. To that end, every two
years Partnership staff gather and analyze:
- Statistics from throughout Saratoga County as well as
the area within Saratoga Springs School District boundaries. This
information reflects a wide range of data, such as DWI crashes, teenage
pregnancies, test scores, and behavioral problems in school.
- Data from the CTC Youth Survey, administered to 12
through 17-year-olds to learn about teen substance use and teens' views
about their relationships with family, peers, their community, and
school.
- Data from the CTC Parent Survey, administered to
parents, which asks for the same information as the youth survey, only
from a parent perspective.
This data helps us measure not only behavior, but also the risk and
protective factors that influence youth - and which the community at
large can influence. Risk factors
are the circumstances that increase the likelihood of drug and alcohol
use. Over a 30-year period, researchers have identified 19 risk factors
that are relable predictors of at-risk behaviors:
| Community
Domain |
School Domain |
| Low
Neighborhood Attachment |
Poor Acadmic
Performance |
| Community
Disorganization |
Low School
Commitment |
| Transitions
and Mobility |
|
| Laws and
Norms Favorable to Drug Use and Crime |
|
| Perceived
Availability of Drugs and Firearms |
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| Family Domain |
Peer and
Individual Domain |
| Poor Family
Supervision |
Rebelliousness |
| Poor Famly
Discipline |
Friends'
Delinquent Behavior |
| Family
Conflict |
Friends' Use
of Drugs |
| Family
History of Antisocial Behavior |
Peer Rewards
for Antisocial Behavior |
| Parental
Attitudes Favorable toward ATOD* Use |
Favorable
Attitudes towards Antisocial Behavior |
|
Favorable
Attitudes towards ATOD* Use |
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Low Perceived
Risks of Drug Use |
|
Early
Initiation (Drug Use and Antisocial Behavior) |
|
Sensation
Seeking |
|
Gang
Involvement |
*Alcohol,
Tobacco, and Other Drugs
Protective
factors buffer young people from their exposure to risk. In
order to develop positive behaviors, young people must be exposed to:
| Healthy
beliefs |
| Clear
standards for behavior |
| Strong bonds
within their family, community, and school |
| Opportunities
for meaningful involvement in the above environments |
| Skills for
successful involvement |
| Recognition
for their involvement |
Saratoga's
local historical data and the Youth and Parent Survey results were
compiled into a document called the Community Risk Profile.
Partnership members reviewed this data, then went through a systematic
process to narrow down the risk factors that warranted the most
attention. Below are the three risk factors that Partnership members
chose to focus on:
- Community Laws and Norms Favorable
toward Drug Use and Crime
- Family Management
- Favorable Youth Attitudes toward ATOD
Use
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