Community Mobilization: Practical Environmental Strategies and How Communities Can Impact Change

1
Community Mobilization Practical Environmental
Strategies and How CommunitiesCan Impact Change

• Jeanne Knopf DeRoche, MA, CPC
• The Knopf Company, Inc.
• jeanne_at_knopfonline.com
• 734-455-4343

2
(No Transcript)
3
Prevention Strategies

• Individual Interventions
• seek to change a person's individual behavior
• focus on helping people develop the knowledge,
  attitudes, and skills they need to change their
  behavior

4
Prevention Strategies

• Environmental Interventions
• seek to change the environment of individuals
• focus on creating an environment that makes it
  easier for people to act in healthy ways

5

• Individual
• Designed to change the individual's attitudes or
  behaviors relating to ATOD use.
• Programs may be run in schools, churches, or
  community-based organizations.
• Educate youth about the harmful effects of ATOD,
  teach life skills, and build resiliency.

• Environmental
• Designed to change the social, political, and
  economic context where ATODs are used
• Strategies may be developed and implemented
  through various sectors in the community.
• Involves changing availability of ATOD, laws and
  policies, and community norms.

6
Environmental Strategies

• The environmental strategies are not to designed
  negate or diminish individual responsibility for
  social problems.
• They underscore the community-wide nature of
  alcohol abuse and related problems such as motor
  vehicle crash injuries and deaths, violent crime,
  suicide, increased health care costs, and teen
  pregnancy.

7
Environmental Approach

• Polluted Stream

8
Policies/Laws
Norms
All Youth
Availability
Environmental strategies focus on three
interrelated factors in the shared environment
Changing social and community norms Reducing
availability and access Adopting and enforcing
regulations
9
Some History

• In colonial days, the local tavern owner made
  sure patrons minded their consumption of "p's"
  and "q's"
• (pints and quarts).

10
Some History

• Society tried in the past to impose a major
  environmental strategy Prohibition
• 18th Amendment to U.S. Constitution (1919)
• It was decidedly unsuccessful.
• Because of strong public opposition, Prohibition
  was overturned by 1933.

11
Some History

• Despite the challenges, research and practice
  point to the tremendous potential of
  environmental approaches.
• The lessons of Prohibition weren't that
  environmental strategies do not work,
• Rather, it showed that legislating behavior will
  not work if the public is at odds with the law.

12
Some History

• In the area of drinking and driving, prevention
  efforts in the past focused on the small group of
  so-called "hard-core" drinkers.
• Stiffer penalties for repeat DWI offenders are
  one way states have tried to target these
  individuals.

13
Some History

• Research has shown that most alcohol-related
  crashes resulting in injuries and deaths involve
  moderate "social" drinkers, rather than heavy
  drinkers.
• It is important to change the systems and
  practices surrounding the way ALL people drink
  and make decisions about whether or not to drive.

14
Environmental Effects

• Some environmental strategies can have an
  immediate effect on rates of substance abuse.
• ExampleIncreasing efforts to make sure underage
  drinking laws are enforced

15
Environmental Effects

• Other strategies may involve gradual changes over
  a long period of time.
• Example working to alter systems or laws

16
Environmental Effects

• The beauty of the environmental approach is that
  it has a cumulative effect.

17
Altering the Landscape

• Changing the environment is no guarantee that all
  individuals will change their behavior.

18
The more an environment changes to support and
encourage healthy behavior, the more that the
general population makes healthy choices.
In turn, this change in behavior starts to
reinforce the prevention message.
19
Policies/Laws
Norms
All Youth
Availability
Environmental strategies focus on three
interrelated factors in the shared environment
Changing social and community norms Reducing
availability and access Adopting and enforcing
regulations
20
Norms
All Youth
21
Changing Social and Community Norms

• The belief that it is wrong to use illicit drugs
  or that it is acceptable for adults to drink in
  moderation are examples of community norms that
  influence the degree of drug use and abuse in
  society.

22
Changing Social and Community Norms

• Most college students do not binge drink.
• Yet many college students are under the
  impression that binge drinking is the norm on
  college campuses. This misperception has the
  potential to become self-fulfilling unless social
  and community norms change.

23
Changing Social and Community Norms

• Underage drinking is an evitiable experience
  rather than one that is preventable.
• Plymouth Canton Youth

24
Policies/Laws
Norms
All Youth
Availability
Environmental strategies focus on three
interrelated factors in the shared environment
Changing social and community norms Reducing
availability and access Adopting and enforcing
regulations
25
All Youth
Availability
26
Reducing Availability and Access

• The 21st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution gave
  control over alcohol availability to the
  individual States, which have chosen to share
  much of the responsibility with local
  jurisdictions.

27
Reducing Availability and Access

• Retail availability
• price
• density of outlets
• conditions of sale and licenses

28
Reducing Availability and Access

• Public availability
• how alcohol is sold to the public
• whether it is available at government-sponsored
  events or locations

29
Reducing Availability and Access

• Social availability
• accepted norms for drinking at private events
  established through tradition, culture, and
  beliefs

30
Policies/Laws
Norms
All Youth
Availability
Environmental strategies focus on three
interrelated factors in the shared environment
Changing social and community norms Reducing
availability and access Adopting and enforcing
regulations
31
Policies/Laws
All Youth
32
Adopting and EnforcingPolicies and Laws

• The more licensed liquor establishments in an
  area, the more likely individuals are to drink.

33
Adopting and EnforcingPolicies and Laws

• Policies do more than change the law.
• Changing the formalized standards for behaviors
  may also change public perceptions and impose or
  change responsibilities within systems.

34
Adopting and EnforcingPolicies and Laws

• Distribution systems
• how the sale and distribution of alcohol are
  controlled.
• Purchase and sales
• regulating minimum legal drinking age
• requirements for purchases of kegs
• server training.

35
Adopting and EnforcingPolicies and Laws

• Policies can play a substantial role in
  restricting access to alcohol, tobacco, and
  illegal drugs and the availability of these
  substances at public events and within
  establishments.
• Limit the marketing of alcohol and tobacco
  products to reduce access and availability.

36
Adopting and EnforcingPolicies and Laws

• While it's important to have strong policies in
  the first place, it's not enough to simply
  advocate for better laws.
• Policies and laws must also be enforced through
  surveillance, community policies, and arrests,
  with appropriate penalties when violations occur.

37
Adopting and EnforcingPolicies and Laws

• Using Compliance Checks
• Enforcing Through Community Policing
• Enforcement Using Deterrence and Incentives

38
Communication

• Public education increasing knowledge and
  awareness of a particular health issue.
• Social marketing using advertising principles to
  change social norms and promote healthy
  behaviors.
• Media advocacy shaping the way social issues are
  discussed in the media to build support for
  changes in public policy and publicizing
  enforcement efforts

39
Communication

• Increase awareness
• Refute myths and misconceptions
• Increase and reinforce knowledge
• Influence and reinforce attitudes and societal
  norms
• Show the benefits of behavior change
• Demonstrate skills

40
Social Marketing

• Framing the way an issue is discussed
• 80 of eighth graders do not smoke
• rather than
• 20 of eighth graders smoke
• Change the way the public perceives and addresses
  common problems.

41
Media Advocacy

• Build support for changes to laws
• Reinforce prevention messages and publicize
  efforts
• Move an issue from the backburner to the top of
  the agenda.

42
Collaboration

• Collaboration is "the process of participation
  through which people, groups, and organizations
  come together in a mutually beneficial and
  well-defined relationship to work toward results
  they are more likely to achieve together than
  alone."

43
Collaboration

• Allow members to work well together.
• Have broad support and involvement from the
  community.
• Are inclusive.

44
Collaboration

• Include members who are willing to invest the
  necessary time and who see the collaboration as a
  long-term effort.
• Emphasize shared decision making.

45
Collaboration

• Frequently requires participants to change the
  way they do things in their own organizations

46
(No Transcript)
47
passionpassionpassio
npassionpassionpassionpassionpassionpassion
passionpassionpassionpassionpassionpassion
passionpassionpassionpassionpassionpassionpa
ssionpassionpassion
48

• The community is not simply the site for the
  intervention,
• it is the vehicle for change.

49

• "A single bracelet does not jingle"African
  proverb